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Ain't nothing ironic about it, I didn't just make that up!
Yeah the cost is a one time fee and gives you access to software updates as long as they support it. BM3 does let you sell/transfer the license one time. So if you get rid of the car, you can deactivate the tune on the car and sell the license. You'll see some For Sale threads in the classifieds section of the forum. (Or if you get another BMW you could simply transfer the license over)
As for going to stage 2 without supporting mods, I know BM3 is software and gives you lots of freedom to change settings, but you can't just turn a dial and have your engine output more power than it is physically capable of. To hazard a guess to your question, if you tried to run stage 2 without a down pipe, i imagine the tune would try to increase boost and fueling, but your ECU would see that there is a restriction downstream and then dial back the settings, so you wouldn't get any real benefit anyway. But i'm no expert - that's just my guess.
If your concern is not wanting to go catless downpipe because of emissions inspections, i totally understand. The other thing you could try is, there are lots of custom tuners out there who could come up with a tune that takes your car's specific upgrades (whatever you end up doing - like intake, FMIC, catback exhaust, etc) and create a tune that takes specific advantage of your setup to give you the most bang for your buck. There might even already be some out there for sale like that.
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