I think a big part of the real "disconnect" between the CI and end-user perceptions are not based merely on the remote itself, but on the overall perception of what home theatre automation and home automation should be in general.

CIs spend pretty much all of their time building complex systems that would make the average end-user's home system look like a tinker toy. I think the same CIs who "diss" the Harmony remotes are just as likely to look down on most of our home entertainment configurations as well. The Harmony remote is just another factor in the overall configuration that is more than suitable for the average end-user, but just doesn't fit the bill for the high degree of customization that a CI wants to do.

I've had CIs who are acquaintances of mine make pretty disparaging remarks about my choices of equipment because I didn't research into trivial matters like discrete code support for obscure functions (ie, "I can't believe you were stupid enough to buy that DVD player without confirming that it has discrete DVD tray open/close codes!").

I started my real foray into universal remotes with the MX-700 about six years ago. The MX-700 was an absolutely fantastic remote for its day, and it took some doing to get my hands on one and the necessary software to program it. Several of my friends ended up with MX-500s as a direct result of my experience with the MX-700 (most of them weren't willing to drop $1000+ on a remote at the time, so the 500 seemed like a nice compromise).

As much as I liked the MX-700, however, it had its deficiencies, not the least of which was no state memory and a relatively low WAF. Not all of the devices I used had discrete codes available, and that caused much frustration as well, and I wasn't about to go out and start replacing hardware just for that purpose.

I'm very much a tinkerer at heart, and I loved the flexibility of my MX-700, but when it suffered an accident (not completely unrelated to the low WAF :) ), I considered buying another one, but decided to look at what else was available. It occurred to me at that time that I was spending a lot of time tinkering with various things to the extend that it was interfering with my enjoyment of them. In other words, with the MX-700 I was spending more time [i]managing[/i] my remote than I was [i]using[/i] it.

My first Harmony, the basic 688 model, seemed like it would be a better fit. In those days, I bumped up against a few things it couldn't do, but I quickly realized that I didn't really [i]need[/i] to do those things -- those were just geek-style tinkering adjustments I wanted to make.

From the 688, I moved on to the 880 and 890 series, and just picked up a Harmony One this week to replace the 890 which finally died on me. I also played with a Harmony 1000 for about a week, but returned it after deciding that the touchscreen approach was not my style.

The only real negatives I've ever encountered in my personal use of the Harmony series remotes was Logitech's rather asinine decision last year to remove their first cut at "macros" (ie, multi-button functions), which has since been rectified in a much better way with "sequences" and of course the ever-present charging issues with the 880 and 890 cradles.... An issue that's been completely resolved with the 1000 and Harmony One models (in fact, when I saw the Harmony One displayed at Macworld in January, I mentioned I already owned an 880 and 890, and the Logitech guy said "Then this is all I need to show you" and dropped the Harmony One into the cradle, where it immediately charged without issue :) ).

The bottom line, IMHO, is that of course the Harmony remotes are limited, and I can understand why a CI would not want to use one (they sell a [i]package[/i], where they choose the best components to make everything work together, and the key word here is [i]customization[/i]), but to slam the Harmony remotes as being overly simplistic or only for neophyte users is unfair. Some of us can certain spend much more time with more sophisticated remotes, but using a [i]simple[/i] solution is a personal choice, because I for one prefer to spend my time doing other things than tinkering with my remote.