Agreed with the above, you signed away the freedom to mod your car when you leased it instead of buying it.
I will say this:
I have a 6MT Alltrack which has the same shitty clutch setup, perhaps slightly different but for all intents and purposes the same. My car comes with a factory 170HP/184TQ (DSG cars actually get 200TQ). I have 11K miles on my Alltrack, 5K of which has been tuned on APR Plus. These clutches suck, but they CAN be salvaged for at least 30K miles on a tune depending on driving style. You just can’t floor it below 3K RPM in 4th, and I wouldn’t floor it below 4K in 5th. Wouldn’t floor it at all in 6th. 6th is only for cruise control on a flat highway at 70+. If there’s hills you’re better off in 5th.
APR Plus is APR’s warrantied Stage 1 tune. The tune your dealer advertised to you is an unwarrantied tune. That’s why it’s only $500. In other words - if you buy the unwarrantied $500 tune, and your engine fails for any reason (can happen to anyone stock or tuned, it’s not common but it does happen), VW will not honor your factory warrantyy because you modified the ECU and put 35% more power through stock hardware.
My APR Plus tune was $1000. That extra $500 goes to the warranty.
the differences between the APR Plus tune and the APR Stage 1 tune your dealer advertised are that the APR Plus tune is an 87-octane safe, low-torque stage 1 tune. It still increases horsepower by like 70-80 and torque the same. The one you were advertised is either a 91 octane or 93 octane tune that makes 80-90Hp and similar torque.
if you drive the GTI stock a bit longer and decide you really love the car, you can definitely tune it. I just wouldn’t tune a car I planned on trading in.