I can half understand if a four-dollar programming device from China with a fake FTDI chip on it won't upload sketches at all. But I paid over $20 for the FTDI Friend, and so far, due to the "flaky" uploads, it has been a big disappointment.
Breadboards are notorious for being nasty because of flaky connections, stray capacitance, and extra connection resistance.
Your blaming everything except your set-up is not helping anyone.
Ray