Just a heads up...
Having smoked a number of freewheels (both HD & regular ones), I thought I should mention they don't always fail so "the pedals just spun free" & in fact sometimes (usually) the pawls & remnants thereof bind up and lock the unit both forward & back... sometimes intermittently, usually completely.
Which ofc means the pedal cranks will spin with the engine/wheel, but on the other hand while disconcerting and problematic there's very little chance of "ankle smashing pedal action" as the initial bind up will kick your feet off & clear of the pedals every time. You'd have to deliberately stick a leg into the pedal's path to have it hit & even then due to the gearing they're not spinning all that fast, you'll get a bruise... maybe.
Naturally, there's ways this could still be disastrous, standing in a turn comes to mind for example - but
every freewheel that's failed on me so far has given warnings , they'll start momentarily "twitching", small but distinct pushes against the arch of your foot right before they fail completely.
I would not recommend ignoring that warning lol
As for "the special tool sucks" ...actually having used it a number of times I can safely say the castellated socket/freewheel bearing removal tool works quite well -
if you put the crank arm in a vice & use a pneumatic impact wrench, by hand there's too much offset leverage & it's on there way too tight.
If you still dislike the "special tool" offered, there's castellated sockets sold individually and in sets of all shapes & sizes by hardware stores & tool suppliers, a quick keyword search will provide plenty of returns... but you may not like the prices lol