I hear ya, this topic has a habit of stirring a debate. All I can say is the oro-tek sensors I threw in my summer wheels for the Flex were not programmed, and I have a few thousands km's on them now with no issue. The winter tire & wheel combo I bought online for the SHO were shipped mistakenly sans sensors, so they would throw a light whenever the car ventured further than 50 km from the house. When the combo first arrived, I attempted numerous re-learns, but I could never get past the left front. After letting all the air out and re-filling as a last ditch effort failed to activate, I tried the OEM wheels and of course had no issue.
Having the oro-tek's put in those winter wheels, so it will be interesting if they auto-learn or not.