I can't answer the question about the OBDII vs Dedicated Programmer, but I wondered the same thing from a different slant. How many vehicles of the applicable range in years do you have, and how often have you needed to have new keys programmed? Since they started this "smart key" thing we've never yet had the need to have a new one linked to a vehicle, but maybe we're not the norm. A $450 tool for something as unique as programming key fobs seems like a business tool, as opposed to something a guy would buy for the tool box.