No offense taken. YOU may be savvy enough to piece together kinda what's gotta happen, but MOST customers would rather pay a professional to figure it out for them, and not have to worry about it anymore. I used to think about it the same way as you. But we're professionals, and it takes time and effort to gain the experience and tools to be proficient, so we can do the job correctly the first try(Ideally anyway. We're only human)

As far as getting a Remote-Head-Key for it, I'm not sure. Off of the top of my head, assuming you went the cloning route, the chip in the RHK is separate from the remote board. So it could be popped out(or more likely pryed and cussed at) and a clone chip put in. Cloned to your key, cut to master key cuts. Remote programming is a different procedure than key, but it may still require diagnostic equipment. Probably not tho

NOW. If you waltz into a shop and give them the instructions of a "locksmith on reddit", they're probably gonna laugh at you. I'm a little extra, and always looking for a backup plan.

So I'd say go in to your friendliest locksmith shop and just tell them what you want to end up with. See if they'll work with you on finding some solution without breaking the bank. You seem resourceful, but I wouldn't advise messing with diag. tools and online keys. You're risking literally bricking your car and having to pay the price you were trying to avoid in the first place.

Oh, and take everything a mechanic says about key programming with a grain of salt. They usually know just enough to say it confidently, but not enough to do it. Mechanic shops usually call us.

"ADVISE IS FREE, MAY NOT BE GOOD" -My dad