It does seem to be solely NukeAl*t. Everything else has been kept at latest versions expect this and no other problems at all.
I am waiting to test the latest update on this again though as a few new versions have been released. WIll let you know, once I get the nerve to deal with it again.
I've been otherwise completely happy with OnyakTech, and thought it was good value... this was a one-off (hopefully) and is the main reason I hadn't wanted to knwo the developer or module. The version 3 of NukeAl*t has a nice way of organising it all, managing subscriptions etc... and I'd expect the new version should be fine for most (otherwise surely others would kick up a fuss).
Developer support can be a big problem I think for many - and as a part of my business is similar (but with Excel templates) I understand that charging a fairly small subscription type fee can mean a lot of support is not profitable... so I think taking the approach to share and publicise solutions in some way will help users - private support with answers can restrict this a little. Providung fixes is one thing, but some area were issues, or usage considerations can be presented or documented may minimise the work put into support.
Forums can be a great way of sharing this information, and helping developers to take action. Also documentation that is maintained can help... if it doesn't do something, or only works in one way - why not include this in the documentation once rather than answer all support asking about it, or several forum questions (sine the DNN forum search isn't that flexible with its results). My idea with support is an issue raised should only need to be dealt with the once - and either it is fixed or included in some sort of documentation - it becomes an investment into improving the product and requiring less support.
With the problem I had, I wonder if others were unlucky and unable to identify the problem. Was I a one off? An unlucky combination of DNN version, NukeAl*t version, other factors? New versions can come out regularly even several in as few days so I may have been unfortunately to be the guy that used the buggy version (though I did first see several beta versions released which I stayed clear of).
The frustration I had with support after identifying the problem... was in telling the developer the problem, how it gave no clue what was happening, no error message, cost me 3 weeks of 'life' (loss of income, no productivity etc) as some $s for people to fix it - the response was "just update it to the latest version". I just didn't felt that was good enough - no apology, no sympathy, no indication it would be investigated, no assurance it wouldn't happen again - and then a week later I get the email asking to renew the subscription. That is what made it all a little more unpleasant.