Which waste of money? I think you might mean the 8811 and JP1 cable. If so, I disagree:

It lets you do that experiment I described in post 11, which may lead us to a solution for the MX-500

It can be programmed to generate all these Dreambox signals. That may take a little more JP1 expert help than you'll get today, but not a lot. I or some other JP1 expert will help with that if you ask again later.

It's a really great remote. Once you get used to a good non-display remote, the lack of display stops mattering. You want to look at the TV, not the remote, anyway. So program the 8811 to be yor real remote and get rid of the MX-500.

(Of course if you meant the MX-500 was the waste of money, I agree).