Was looking to purchase a blueprint system from a some what in state dealer and they told me that in order for them to sell it to me I had to be blueprint certified or they would have to install it first. I have never heard of this before and kinda caught me off guard. I know old posts used to say cantrol was only to certain people but I have the whelen core and want to go to the Blueprint system. I see other dealers don't have that as a requirement to but but just though I would at least try to keep some of my money local.
I am going a bit off topic here as well as answering your question with a definite "maybe". I have BluePrint on one command truck and Core on two others at work. I programmed both, now whether that was technically allowed I don't know. I was not aware of a requirement, but I was aware of the training available for dealers of both systems. If I personally sold either (I do not) I would demand that I do the initial setup because it is very easy to screw either of them up in potentially dangerous ways. I don't want the blame for someone's install that shuts off all lights when the vehicle is in park or what ever they messed up.
I will also say that I wouldn't replace one for the other. They are similar with there being some benefits to each, but both do exactly what I want under the conditions I want. The Core system is a lot easier for me to setup "if this then that" commands like "if in park AND in position 3 then switch modules 10, 12, 15, 16 to solid red AND set siren to "off" AND activate "portable radio local repeater". On the other hand BluePrint was cheaper and really has the same features just not in quite as obvious a way if you aren't used to it IMHO. I also like the way Core imports the existing settings and populates the setup vs the way BluePrint does it, but it is really a minor complaint based on which I use more. I also prefer the ability to point and click on over a hundred siren tones in Core and assign them to different events easily. On the flip side I can still change siren behavior on my Nergy siren on BluePrint without ever hooking it up to my laptop if I remember the programming combo of buttons. The BluePrint was also about 20% cheaper, so there is that.
Digital rights and equipment ownership is becoming a big thing, look at John Deere. I wouldn't be surprised if subscriptions are required to update systems across the board eventually. I know both BluePrint and Core software are free downloads now, but I can see them becoming dealer licensed in the future. The shop my dept. uses had to buy Freightliner software to work on our trucks and that was not cheap. Whether this is an official Sound Off policy, a suggestion, a dealer preference or a dealer misinterpretation I'm not sure. Since my ramblings didn't actually answer the question hopefully a Sound Off dealer can comment.