So I really liked the idea of having a crackdown deck, so I decided to go ahead and make one, bad as it is already. The card is ridiculously difficult to use considering 2/3rds of your turn go to taxing the runner's first install by 1 credit.

I draw a 5 card hand that looks pretty nice, I'm playing RP so I install it, protect it, and then next turn I put a counter on it. This deck was specialized around taxing runners who like to sit and set up.

As it was, my friend was playing a Kit set up deck that used Personal Workshop and brain damage. All he did was ignore docklands crackdown and host programs on Personal Workshop before installing them ignoring all costs after using its paid ability.

This was the correct play yes? We read the cards and agreed that that was how it worked, which was pretty disappointing to me considering Docklands is already a bad card, and with Personal Workshop in play it might as well not exist.

It's so ironic that docklands works best against non-interactive set up type Runners yet Shapers are most likely to be the ones to set up and have Personal Workshop.

Yep, you got it right. Docklands increases the cost, but Workshop doesn't care because it ignores all costs anyway.

Docklands is considerably better against Clone Chip/SMC than Workshop.