thats happened to me with a 120a turnigy aswell but it was'nt down to the program card, it was the components inside that went wrong, it may just have been the same with your friends esc, all the people who suggested (and owned) to get the program card, everyone of them reported no problems, it may just have been coincidence that at the time of the esc  going wrong, he happened to use the program card

besides, i can be a lazy person and using the transmiiter to change esc values is something i could'nt get used to, people have there ways of doing things but i stand by what i say and thats get a program card