If PIC programmers/debuggers didn't cost about the same as a months rent, or at least didn't use proprietary Windows-only drivers... I love PIC stuff too but jesus they make it hard to choose their stuff for hobby work.
At the same time a good JTAG probe like J-Link for arm micros can cost 300-800 Eur. There are both cheap and expensive solutions for most microcontrollers.
My impression was it was basically one engineer or a very small team implementing the pickit who took the opportunity to make it a tour de force.
Recommended, if it will do what you need.
I’ve never understood how they stay in business. Dirt cheap SWD programmers work with pretty much any arm chips and give you all the debugging features like breakpoints over just 2 wires.
Alternatively you could use a programmer that doesn’t require any software and just exposes a GDB server over a tty: https://1bitsquared.com/products/black-magic-probe