Look in the new marketplace that is in the latest milestone and you will find a widget that you can use with your mobile phone to keep working with whilst you shop around.
Harmony Hub Remote - Add-on Marketplace / UI Widgets - openHAB Community
I have a spare remote I picked up very cheap and have not opened to use as a spare, so I am twice as annoyed these are going to stop at some point.
Not going to happen ever, period… A large company with a history of announcing product end of lines, does not spend money without seeing a direct return on that investment. They will just leave it running and when use drops to a certain point they will kill it. People would complain if they stated a time frame, so by doing this they allow users to move on and reduce the kick back to a lower number. Its only a matter of time.
Yes that is the cheap option to send IR.
Another option to look at is this to RECIEVE the IR and turn it into keyboard and MCE button pushes that most software can understand.
How To PROPERLY Control Nvidia Shield & PS4 with Alexa: FLIRC - YouTube
It allows me to control Kodi and many other software packages and it is cheap and allows any old IR remote that you already have lying around to be recycled instead of going into landfill or just buy a cheap remote you like the layout for.
Combine the Flirc and an RM4 and you should get away pretty cheaply but it will need some more setup time then just buying a harmony.