Bluntly, you shouldnt have buyers remorse... yes these guys support Lowrance, but they are way behind Garmin and Humminbird in my opinion. Most Lowrance users have technical issues and their customer service has been abhorrent across many forums, so for that, you did well with a Garmin.
Data in general is yours... noone should be "sucking it up" so to speak. I'm not sure how garmin handles mapping, except that it bought out Navionics, but that being said, i know how your data is heading elsewhere, with both Humminbird and Navionics.. and personally i hate what they do.
Before they were purchased by Garmin (and im positive it still works the same way) navionics would have an "option" to upgrade your maps and you had to agree to share yours. I've always got my updates seperately and never shared my data. Same thing with Humminbird. If i wanted to go online and get extra info, i had to share mine... so essentially, you do all the work to create your maps depth charts etc, and then without saying anything they get you to share yours joyfully.... but later, if there are map updates, you have to purchase them... so a nice way to say, hey, you gave me your data, now i can put it into my system, and charge it back to you.... yes, you get more data, but id rather keep mine and build more than do all the work and have to pay to get it back to me (or use it in a way that may be slightly more convenient.
Allan
