Sure we can disagree thats our right as human beings.
All I am really saying is we can tell you the basics of what is needed to run the software on a server.
We can not guarantee every last aspect of a software is going to run on every last hosting setup. Hostgator limits alot of your php stuff because your on their cheap shared hosting. Thats a hosting issue. lets put this into context you will understand.
Look at your exif issue your reporting. We can give you exif functionality in the software but thats only if your host supports it. They dont have exif installed so you cant use that part of the design. We release a free importer for you to import your albums content but because of your current hosts webservers cant use it. We cant control that. make sense now.
If your host gave you more memory to overcome your issue it would probally work. You could see if they could temporarily raise it for you to run that script but if there unwillingness to work with you is a sign of there brand of customer service then I would seriously consider taking my business elsewhere. Being that our application is software I can do what I can to help but we are limited by your hosting setup. If your host is unwilling to budge there settings there is nothing we can do.