The "big deal" is that a Booofwang programming cable WILL work. PERIOD! The cables with chips in them are interchangeable. The only thing you need to have is the proper driver for you PC and OS. Many CCRs use fake chips anyhow so, again, you have to have the proper driver even if you have to use an old driver.
I've had one for a year or two. Wouldn't be my primary DMR radio, being without a display or keyboard, but i use it for testing. It works and the audio is fine. It's only a couple of watts output which is good for use with a hotspot. I'd print the memory contents onto a business card (or the like) and keep it affixed to the radio.
Yes, I program NOAA Wx into all my radios that can receive those freq's, be they GMRS or HAM.
It's handy if I go driving cross country. Here, north of Dallas, when the conditions are right, I can pick up NWS transmitters on all or most of the freq's.
Contrary to what a number of YT'ers have reported, the power output from my AT-779UV was at or slightly above the rated power.
I've had it since last June ('22) and it runs most every night as I drive out town after supper. I like the little bugger!
FWIW, my AT-779UV arrived with version 2.26 firmware. I still have the .zip file containing the 2.30 firmware and the associated .rar file containing the programs used to update your radio. I believe that 2.30 fixed most everything that NotARubicon mentioned in his video review.
-Rusty-