Money wasted you mean surely misty? The point though is that the McCanns have used money which was supposed to have been used to search for their missing daughter. Had they really wanted to assist the investigation they would have cooperated fully with the police and encouraged their tapas friends to do the same. They would not have scurried off back to the UK like scared rabbits plotting revenge as they went. Is it little wonder that some directors of the Madeleine Fund removed themselves from the board when the parents became more important than the child?
IMO the money was well spent because it served 2 purposes - attempting to quieten the main protagonists in the death thesis whilst keeping Madeleine's name & case in the Portuguese national press at the same time.
The McCanns had to return to the UK at some stage. I think the only surprise is that they didn't come home much sooner and perhaps it would have been better if they had, from their perspective. The UK police would have also disappeared from the scene & there would probably have been no dogs......