Questions about recurring profiles

Hello all, trying to set up recurring payments and had a few questions.

First, is OpenCart still charging the product price AND the initial subscription charge when the item is checked out? If so, is there a fix in the latest builds that I could apply? I don't feel like paying for an extension to fix a giant bug like this is appropriate.

Also, if I set this up as a payment every 1 year for 1 payment, is that essentially like creating a non-recurring payment, or will OC still try to charge the customer twice?"

This is pretty basic, and a critical step in making this work, and it feels like an afterthought.

First, is OpenCart still charging the product price AND the initial subscription charge when the item is checked out?

-Yes

If so, is there a fix in the latest builds that I could apply?

-Yes, if you understand how the PayPal API works. Not an easy feat

Also, if I set this up as a payment every 1 year for 1 payment, is that essentially like creating a non-recurring payment, or will OC still try to charge the customer twice?"

-If you add a profile to the product it'll be charged on top of the product price which cannot be zero. You could use it as a downpayment, just an idea

Alright, well this is unacceptable for my use case, so it looks like I'm going to have to code a fix. When it's done, I'll make it available for free.

If someone would link me to a good tutorial on using github, I'll even submit a proper merge request, or whatever.