I have been following this thread with interest and have decided that in my opinion MDA is doing a great job. They are marketing what is actually a hobby product that can perform as well as any of the commercial systems with comparable hardware.
Admittedly the licensing system is a little slow sometimes but with a small improvement it works well. Remember, the requirement for activating the license on the dongle is determined by the sample set producer, not MDA. If you get an unencrypted/or unlicensed set you don’t have to update your dongle to play it. Only if the sample set producer requires it.
MDA has said in the past that if you damage your dongle they will work to provide a replacement, if you loose it you are out of luck since that holds the license.
It seems like insuring the dongle against loss would be the prudent thing to do. We do that with many other types of equipment including cameras, cell phones, cars, as well as other items…. Why do we think that MDA should be responsible for something lost that is in our control. In other words, why should somebody else be responsible for our actions? Now, back to lurking with the asbestos coat .