True. I was looking at it from the perspective of they would be adding new features that would require different hardware.

If they use a pin-style card it would have to be re-designed every time they added a new feature. I think a Lutach-style LCD programmer done well would be a very good alternative to computer programming. It would also be nice to be able to program in some "default" settings via the computer so you could plug the handheld into your ESC and load up a certain setting, this would be particularly good for throttle curves made for certain track types.

How expensive would a LCD programmer be?

Not much. Lutach gives them away for free with his ESCs and the ones I've seen on HobbyCity are cheap. I'd expect street price to be $20-30.