Bert, I've read your story and it does scare me. I can't speak to your experience as I haven't heard both sides but it certainly seems you've been shafted. What you say they did in terms of making you sign a muzzle contract in order to get support seems crazy, but you certainly aren't the first to say this so I'm inclined to believe it.
I've had this experience before with other companies selling tech to hobby market folks at lower prices and with horrible customer service because they were focused on industrial level machines with paid support contracts and had never needed to have customer service on a level that someone in the hobby market would expect when paying many thousands for a machine. It's a market perspective thing. In the end I had to weigh the numbers both monetarily and with numbers sold vs. numbers of complaints I've found.
That said, I'm with you. I fully expect a warranty to be kept and without a forced muzzle. Though, If my tube goes out in 200 hours and after my initial warranty is up, I won't be surprised as they make no guarantee on it. They simply state what their supplier rates it for. I didn't purchase an extended warranty or a premium support package. The warranty on their website is very clear and pretty limited. So to sum up, I know what I'm getting into and don't have unrealistic expectations. It's somewhere around a $1000 gamble I'm willing to take as I didn't have that extra $1000 at the time to purchase from anyone else with a more solid coverage on their warranty for consumables. If I have to buy 3 tubes I'm still coming out ahead monetarily speaking.
I learned a big lesson with DJI Innovations last year. I'll spare the LONG story but ... They didn't take kindly to my threats of spreading every fact of what had gone wrong with my purchase and how they'd treated me over many months of trying to get my issues fixed, so I swallowed my pride, worked my way up the chain of command nicely and politely and in the end came out way ahead in product and support. Honey vs. Vinegar. I'm not saying you are wrong or right as again I don't know both sides. I sure hope I don't end up in your situation, but lets just say I won't be surprised if I do. Thanks for putting your story up as a caution to others.