I agree, marketing a dongle product along with primarily offering circular LNBFs and 18" dishes in packages with FTA receivers is a red flag indicating the intent of the reseller.
One must be careful as tagging product only as a hack device or illegal just because it has features that could be used to promote theft of service. Using a RS232 / USB dongle on a FTA receiver is a perfect example of a legitimate product utilized for theft of services. There is often no difference between using a receiver with a built-in modem, ethernet port or adding a dongle. They just facilitate data communications. This technology could be used by hobbyists to view or transport programming to other devices via LAN, share channel lists, download EPG data, custom GUI / OSD, etc.
We have explored distributing EPG for FTA channels via a web service using RJ45 port or a dongle for legacy receivers. There is great potential for additional communication methods for receivers!
Hobbyists should request manufactures to provide support for legitimate features and work with their R&D or independently explore (hack) the abilities of this hardware to provide new features for the hobbyist community rather than brand items as valid only for theft of service.
Sure, it is nice to get a nice shiny electronic device that works perfectly and does everything as advertised, but I grew up with Radio Shack "65 in 1" and "100 in 1" kits. Have you ever hooked your STB RS232 serial port to a PC? Watched the results with Hyper Terminal? Sent a key stroke and received a response? View the hand shake and data exchange between the STB and a channel loader program?
There is much more out there for a "True" FTA hobbyist!