I whole heartily agree with you on the first point, it is a stupid thing for anyone to do! Alas, one can always find those idiots who can not help themselves under the right circumstances...
For the second point you hit the nail on the head, resetting the ECU and the transmission is the key point here, without doing so those gains can be marginal at best. Regardless, both the transmission and engine are capable of so much more...
For example (maybe at the cost of a new GPS head unit - they are thankful for that warranty), they may had the ability to muck around with the CAN interface and achieve a permanent ability to red line @ 7500RPM, even with stock configuration and after careful study, they concluded a significant edge was added, which may give most other R-Specs a run for their money...
Like the rest of us, I am sure they continue to live in the hope that someone will be able to fully crack open that stubborn ECU for our V8s, similar to was done for V6s / Coupes.. We shall see...
The important thing is everyone is happy, which is what this forum is all about..