Digitfant Custom Remap vs Aftermarket ECU

[DaBigGinger]

As I'm only running an off the shelf chip, I'd like to look into getting a custom remap in the near future. I was discussing the pros and cons of getting the existing ECU remapped and standalone (Omex ECU). What I got from the discussion was:

Digitfant
Comparatively cheap.
Old ECU - unlikely to get replacement ECU's and sensors will be harder to get hold of should any fail.
Being an old ECU, it could be reaching the end of its life.

Standalone - Omex
Expensive.
Faster sampling rate = better performance and smoother delivery.
Compatible with a wide range of VAG sensors. Should any of mine fail in the future, these should be interchangeable with comparable parts.
New ECU - should work fine for many years.

What are people's opinions on both the options?
Has anyone known of any G40 ECU's failing yet?
Has anyone had a custom mapped car and taken the leap to standalone?
Was there any real difference and did you feel it was worth the money?

Thanks 

[Andy]

Digifant
Remap cheaper than standalone plus mapping (£300-£450 vs £650 + remap costs).
Fully validated OEM system, hardware and software robust.
Calibration (or "maps") done by a team of experts across a wide range of operating conditions, leaving a remap to just optimise main fuel and spark tables to new modifications. All correction factors for ambient conditions (air temp, coolant temp) and engine warm-up characteristics are already optimised for the engine in properly controlled conditions.
Old technology, but generally repairable by specialists.
Old hardware, but secondhand replacements cheap.
Limited features (e.g. no switchable maps or boost control - but these can be addressed with bolt-on hardware).
Can go from a standard map for a 1272cc 8:1 compression supercharged car to a 1341cc 9:1 compression turbo'd car with bigger MAP sensor and injectors in ~8 hours, leaving a very driveable car at the end of it.

Standalone
Expensive.
Often more feature-rich than Digifant (wasted spark, sequential injection, crank trigger inputs etc.)
Compatible with a wide range of sensors, easy to swap out for alternatives and reconfigure ECU to suit.
New ECU - should work fine for many years.
Hardware and software not validated to anywhere near the same standards as Digifant (therefore whilst being a new ECU, it might not last as long as Digifant - and may have software bugs...)
More ability to change a wide range of parameters = more opportunity to optimise and search for that last 0.5bhp.
Need to calibrate a much wider range of parameters over Digifant, your starting point is a load of zeros. Unless you have a climatically controlled engine dyno, you won't make as good a job at calibrating ("mapping") peripheral maps such as air or coolant temp corrections, nor optimise engine warm-up strategy etc.
Takes a lot longer than 8 hours to map a standalone system to the same standard that you can achieve with Digifant. (I have upwards of 80 hours in my Emerald calibration now, and it's still not as robust as an 8 hour Digifant calibration).

[DaBigGinger]

Very interesting - thanks Andy!