Yes I've heard of PCM Hammer and Tunerpro. Both have less support than anyone else and less warnings. You need to a definition file for tunerpro. Most of those are created by other people and it can be a gamble if it's right or not. PCM hammer is still in development and only supports two PCM's. You are not going to find a tool like HP Tuners with as much functionality for the price.
HP Tuners does have a pop up when licensing your PCM. To me it's clear that flashing another file will cost more credits. If you read that and go to the help section it spells out how it works. When you go to apply the credits it gives another warning too. I get your frustration but its the risk.
License popup.PNG
I wish they would support exporting the raw bin too. They most likely don't for their own protection or some other reason I don't understand. Most tuning software companies don't give you them either. End of the day they sell a product that unlocks your computer and lets you adjust parameters within their software so we can't get upset that we can't export the BIN because we didn't buy a tool that does that or is advertised as doing so. If I assumed it, I would have asked before purchasing.
Think about this. You buy a part, install it, and overtighten which ends up warping it/breaking it. You are upset that it didn't have a warning about this even though it listed a torque spec. You now are upset that they don't include their tooling jig so you can attempt to fix it. Really what you are arguing sounds exactly like that.
Not to be disrespectful however you are fighting a lost cause. If you plan on continuing tuning and end up explore other options you will end up changing your opinion and probably disagree with yourself and your original post. HPT can be an easy target to blame as they give a lot of access for the price which puts it within reach to a lot of people. This along with the other companies that offer similar products pretty much have zero information about how the software exactly works, the price is a lot higher, and their online forums are locked to people who are not customers.
I hope everything else goes smooth with your tuning. Once you start using it/grasp It you will have fun and quickly forget about the lost credit.