1) I did put money into it, a flashpro, and tuned it myself
2) Before that I easily adapted to it... it didn't mean I liked it. I had to either enter at the tail end of my power band, or quite a bit below it. Now I have power everywhere.

 

Update: My car is good and running now. I have replaced all 4 of my tires with Goodyear all-seasons(even though it has never snowed down here), replaced a rear lower control arm, and had it aligned at a local alignment shop. The weird thing is, after they were done with the alignment, my steering wheel doesn't feel "tight" anymore. The dead point at the start of each rotation has a much wider angle. It feels like power steering on steroids. It's a huge difference, but not enough for me to complain about it, I'm just glad to have my car back.