Well any asynchronous programming requires FSM. Thus don't do distributed system or asynch if you don't like FSM. It may not be self taught.

The explosion of transitions with the number of states is unavoidable by nature. It requires thinking and design on paper before implementing.

Here is example of hpib that includes the FSM for the communication. These people did a great job and yes it is hard

http://www.hp9845.net/9845/tutorials/hpib/