That is what happens when people simply repeat what they hear on the internet. They say foam filters suck bcause they fall apart and get sucked into the engine? While I've heard a few stories about the Dragon filter when it was first released, I have no absolute knowledge if it, as I have never personally seen anyone have one fail. Also, many of us, probably the majority of us Legend owners use a Weapon-R intake with foam filter for many years now, and not one failure has resulted. I figure the 230HP 3.2 V6 Legend engine should produce more air suction power than the other 4 cylinder cars, so if we are not sucking any material in and ruining our engines, I fell most people are not either. By the way, they praise the HKS filters, but I've read on the internat of people injesting HKS filter elements as well. Again, I have no absolute knowledge, but it possible shows that every company may have some problems with their products at times. No one is immune.
Now some of those people called the poor guy a stupid kid for backing WR, but then go on to say "Weapon-R still sucks becaue most people think they suck." Now that too me shows the maturity level of some of those posters. Like one person said, who hard is it to make a 3: alumiunum pipe? But somehow Weapn-R's 3" aluminum pipes are made of poor quality? I don't think so. Without the sticker, most people wouldn't be able to tell the differnce between one or the other.
As far as the ECU. I have no comment on that part, as it is still a pretty new product from Weapon-R. It still needs to have a couple of years on the real world before anyone can pass judgment pro or con. ECU tuning is not easy, so in a yaer or two we should know how well the Weapon-R ECU is tuned.
If your friend is really instested in purchasing the Weapon-R ECU for his Lexus, he should try and contact the people that have them directly for their advice and opinion.