Not sure why you've added £80 to your equation for a pulse as you don't need an aftermarket board or void your warranty if you use a harness. It just seems a bit silly that you have to pay an extra 30 quid (30% of the hopper price) to be able to use the hopper to it's full capabilities.
The thing that surprised me more than anything is that they expected people to solder their own harness at the beginning and even though I believe they now supply one style of plug and play harness, there isn't a variety provided by the manufacture for use with it's product, meaning you may have to go an buy your own 3rd party one anyway. It all just gives me the impression being a bit rushed to get it out for cup last year.
After all that though, they are pretty damn fast once you plug in the chip.
Then again, if your only ever going to use it at 15bps capped events there really isn't much need for any of the fancy stuff as all of the high end loaders feed 15 pretty easy out of the box anyway.