I never used parameters with R8169, and I used it with 9 different NICS (all different, even though all but one claimed to be a 10EC:8168, which is simply the on board version of the 10EC:8169). It is certainly not necessary to tell it that it is using an IRQ over 15.
It sounds like you may have got the NIC interface turned off, by using a bad driver (R8168 will do that). Running windows, or Linux, did not get it turned back on, for me. Turn the machine off, pull the plug for a couple of minutes, then plug it back in. The R8169 driver will probably work, although one of mine didn't (the newest one). It connected okay, but scrambled the data. The MMRE driver works very well, with all of them. The later versions of Multimac will use the MSI interrupt method, if the hardware supports that (most will).
$50 US, ($75 Can)
Well, it is actually $49 US, which is somewhere near $63 CAD (plus exchange fees). It is also more than just one driver. Well worth the investment, if you want to use OS/2.
I was just wondering, does ANoae have an upgrade plan for old eCS users?
I don't think so. ArcaOS is based on a different version of OS/2, but the driver package applies to eCS, as well as older versions of OS/2, ArcaOS has it's own subscription package.