Updates and support

I wasn’t too happy with the plugin even before the infamous update to v2.7.6, mostly because it lacked some customization abilities. But yet it still offered the most among other free alternatives.
However, after the said “upgrade”, none of the downloadables on any of the sites I administrated worked any more. There was no notice prior to the upgrade that it will completely break the functionality, and what’s more, the developers did not provide an efficient way for migration from the old system to the new one, which left all shortcodes having to be manually changed from page to page, which is a tedious and time consuming labour, to say the least.
On top of all, the authors’ rude replies on many objections at this forum left an even worse taste in mouth.
I do understand that this is a FREE plugin, and I appreciate anyone’s work on creating free-of-charge products and solutions… but what is much more important than being free, what is actually essential, is simply being useful.