1) QuoteTracker DOES have Backfill support if you use a quote source that has it. IB doesn't. Not for QT, Not for Sierra. If you use IQFeed, Prophet.net, eSignal, Money.net or one of the others that do have backfill support, then QT will have that.
2) even without backfill support, you do NOT start blank every day. We have had 5 day chart support for a long time now.
3) IB symbology in QT is documented at
http://www.quotetracker.com/help/ib.shtml
GLOBEX

ESH4
GLOBEX

NQH4
DTB

FDAX MAR 04 Must have 1 space before and after MAR
ECBOT

YM MAR 04 Must have 3 spaces after YM and 1 space after MAR
The symbol peculiarities (multiple spaces, etc) is not a QT thing. Those symbols are IB's.
4) If you were getting constant updates to QT software, then you must have been using the beta version of the software. The production version does not change for months. Beta changes can be daily. What do you expect when its BETA.
5) Gaps in charts - you have full control over the time periods QT displays on the charts and can omit days or adjust start/end times.
Having said all that, I know that there are certain things that QuoteTracker lacks - long term historical charts built directly by QT for example, backtesting, alerts on indicators. Some of those things will be taken care of by us in the future, others we leave to other programs such as Sierra, AmiBroker, Wealth-Lab and others. We are not trying to be everything to everybody and do not feel that you should always use QuoteTracker instead of Sierra or others. There is plenty of room for both products.
We are actually implementing an API that will let other programs such as the ones mentioned get streaming data through QT from any of QT supported data feeds, thus allowing more efficient interaction between QT and the 3rd party programs, so the user will more easily be able to run multiple systems at the same time, but without having to have multiple subscriptions or having to get multiple streams of data ont he same symbols that may be in the two systems.