There are many tuners now remapping these things ,i used Bluefin, whilst a bit old now its reliable and you can pick and choose from any of the 5-6 maps that can be downloaded from superchips.
Clutch is a lottery and that's exactly what it is a lottery, some slip straight away some don't slip for a long time, but at some point it will.

I myself drive carefully and feed the power in up to 3500rpm then floor it but try not to boot from low down the rpm,this way the clutch can last a little longer.

As for remapping a standard car-yes and it feels like how these cars should have left the factory,take out the small middle box (de-resinate the car) and it sounds like how it should have left the factory also.

Im running a group buy on an st forum for a drive in drive out package on the RS clutch conversion at the mo and cost is £820 all in so it wont break the bank when you do need one.
As Jay said 300bhp and a shed load of torque is easily found on these cars for not a lot of money led than 1k will see you 300+bhp but the clutch will always be the weakest link,then drive shafts after that if you launch a lot