VAG401 is a handheld tester designed for VAG products. It looks like most other Chinese ODBII testers but it does speak VW's proprietary language. It can talk to individual controllers, it can do coding, adaptations, measuring blocks, and output tests just like VCDS. The Chinese may well have used VCDS to learn about VW's communications protocols, but this product is definitely not a VCDS clone.
However, as the OP has learned, it can do all of that stuff but it doesn't tell you how to do it or what to do. You are on your own to try to figure it out for yourself. Instructions are minimal and support is pretty much non-existent. A lot of VAG401 users probably rely a lot on the Ross-Tech wiki, but that is no substitute the adaptation maps and long coding helper functions built into VCDS. A VAG401 can be purchased on eBay, Amazon, and lots of other places. Compared to VCDS it is cheap, but you get what you pay for.
Have Fun!
Don