You just said there are other ways to do it besides Epson. There are multiple sites that provide utilities to reset the counter.
The sponges are cheap. Way cheaper than using a cartridge printer. You can even just clean out the sponge and put it back in. You don’t have to buy a new one.
Even going through Epson’s first party maintenance program is way cheaper than using a cartridge printer. Like, orders of magnitude cheaper.