Phil, nothing was aimed at you specifically mate, PLEASE dont take it personally, it was just that comment you made about "insurance" that started me off about people with those sort of views like "chuck in a bit higher octane fuel and it will be alright" as opposed to remapping it.
also, in time you will learn on here that using the name "Phil" isnt a great start to getting taken seriously on here
Seriously though, welcome to the forum and you sound like you are interested in learning which is what most of us are here for.
For the record though your comment about tuning gurus and cossies is a LOT more accurate than you realise, most of the best tuners in the country have a lot to do with tuning cossies, including people you may have heard of through the world of jap cars like Mark Shead.