Yes, this is the perennial question/lament. The various URC remotes are the best. Hard buttons, customizable LCD displays, AA powered or li-ion with recharge station, even touch screen (which I hate for remotes).

But as we all know, URC is restricted to certified installers, and even if you did find the latest software, programming the remotes is a disaster since the UI sucks and needing to find the right bridge software, dongles, etc. is a giant pain.

I myself am going through the hassle of continuing to support my MX-980 remotes since they work so well. Heck, I'm thinking of replacing a Crestron system in my home theater with a URC setup since even Crestron can't seem to create a handheld remote that doesn't suck.

I have been waiting, and waiting, and waiting for 20 frigging years for someone to come out with a consumer programmable remote on par with URC. It still hasn't happened yet. All we have now is the crappy Harmony system (which I tried, it is crappy), and a bunch of smartphone remotes which don't work well because they aren't hard button, the form factor is wrong and a bunch of other reasons.

If someone wanted to run a startup to create a real consumer remote company, I'd fund it. I don't have the interest in running it myself, but I'd surely have a go at creating a new company for it. Lord knows, there's no competition out there, still.