I have four diffrent cables from Rtsystems and have never had any problems. I have their cable for the US 5 series and have programmed over 30 of the Baeofeng for club members and for the local C.E.R.T. and the cable has NEVER failed me. Maybe you are doing something wrong while attempting programming.
The RTSystems cables changed at some point to cater to their newer generation of software. They stopped identifying as generic FTDI devices and getting assigned a COM port in windows (or tty on UNIX) so that the software could identify the cable and be "more automatic". This is, of course, the opposite of what CHIRP people need.
Just because you have one cable that works well doesn't mean they are a good option for people looking for a new cable.
I would recommend against them. FTDI cables, yes, but not those.
--Dan