Sorry to hear you got taken for a ride, but just to clarify the $700 MRC quote for Nistuning is new tune start to finish. Doubt they spend all day but when you have two guys working a $200k Dyno it does speed up the process.
One of the other primary advantages of using a dyno is the fact that you can tell wether or not changes made to the tune have an actual advantage power wise. Road testing is blind tuning, your butt does not measure power as well as a dyno. Note also that a braked dyno is superior to a standard dyno because the engine can be put under load, in effect resembling aerodynamic drag. An engine tuned on a non-braked dyno can easily knock on the road in higher gears due to heat build up. When a dyno is not available or lacks the ability to properly cool the engine (problem with many dyno's, particular on extremely high HP engines) the car can also be tested on a long straight strip with either an ultra sensitive GPS/g-force measuring device telling you not by power but by acceleration speed wether or not changes made are any good. When the car can be tested on a 400m or 1000m sprint the trap time is a good indicator as well, typical old school way of doing it.
