In spite of their shortcomings, Microchip certainly puts forth a good effort. I looked into other options, and the only non-Microchip 8-bit I found was Texas Instruments. Perusing their data sheets, there's no way the TI can pretend to compete with PIC. Then there are the (now) Microchip Atmel versions, which in my opinion aren't as flexible nor powerful as the PIC line.

Although their software usually has a bug or 2 (MPLABX, XC8, now-defunct MPASM, MCC, etc), they update regularly, fixing issues as they are able.

I have had glitches with their relatively new ICD4 programmer. No questions asked, they send me a new one and trust me to send back the old one. I'm on my 4th one now (and it finally works as advertised).

Since no person, company, product, or service could ever be "perfect", it boils down to how well issues are handled. In my opinion, Microchip certainly ranks up there with the top 10% - 15%. That said, thank you Wayne for sharing your awesome story. Hope you enjoyed the rest of your trip as well.