I don’t understand why HLS is getting beat up so much. The article mentioned that some bad lenders can do unscrupulous things such as roll the fees into the mortgage.

Not the case when I refinanced a few times with HLS. And no costs that can be explained by this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3WNlWyFgLCg

Everything was explained clearly with options on getting so much money back at a certain rate or paying more to get a better rate.

And afterwards, I did all the painful math and it really was a no cost loan.

Personally I think no cost loans are great in that it allows additional refinancing as rates go down.