There is nothing wrong with HT so long as it's used as intended. On a stock car or just an intake it's fine.
The only thing really wrong with it is that it seems to move all the power to the first 50% of the throttle.
Around the city it's good, country driving with lots of overtaking like I do, it felt a bit strange that more throttle I gave, not much happened.
The AP has the advantage of custom tunes and accepting more mods.
But stock with HT vs stock with AP I think it comes down to how you like your throttle eel and how you like your power to be made.
2013 Ford Focus ST - Performance Blue, Cobb AP
Gone 2006 3 MPS Sports - True Red, Koni FSD shocks, in dash OEM look Ebay GPS/DVD, Hypertech, RX8 Rims