I have a 2009 8P S3 and it has an 1K0614517BE ABS pump that started telling me to drive carefully to the nearest workshop....

Really. Hill hold, ESP and all that really specific expensive stuff.

Anyway I have now paid big bucks in Oz for a remanufactured ABS controller, sent them the problematic one etc.

I am wondering if I should get them to clone my old one to the "new" one at $190 or if my mate the mech can do it easy enough.

Anyone been in this space before?

What you should have done,

was taken a full VCDS scan on your vehicle before the removal of the ABS pump.
As soon as power is removed they lose their config.

With the replacement unit installed, opened VCDS and pasted long coding. Save, do adaptions and you're all done.