There's very, very few pieces of dog equipment which aren't 'aversive' to a dog, in that they produce an effect the dog doesn't like if he/she does something we don't like, even a plain old flat collar. It's just a matter of degree and of the skill and/or sensitivity of the person on the other end of the lead; the dog is intelligent enough in the vast majority of cases to work out what he needs to do.
Training is the long-term and horribly dull, predictable answer but you do need to keep yourself, your dog and the general public safe while you're working on it, so use what will do that but learn how to use it properly. None of the gizmos and gadgets work alone, they need handler input and that input needs to be fair, correct and - crucially - at the right time.
The problem with Dogmatic and similar headcollars that don't tighten is that they don't loosen, either, they're always the same; there's nothing to 'give back' to the dog when it isn't pulling, so there's not much release/reward for the dog being good other than the handler's praise/treat. If that had worked to start with the dog wouldn't be needing the reinforcement of the headcollar anyway. I also suspect that the Dogmatic in particular has a sneaky pinching action on the dog's cheeks and lips from the metal rings where the noseband joins the headpiece. Dogmatics (and Haltis, come to that) are also 'sided' in that the lead hook needs to be on the side nearest the handler to work correctly, which can become a faff for some handlers and lead to neck twisting for the dog. Better to use a headcollar which attaches centrally at the back of the head.
No one thing or technique works for every dog; all the techniques and gadgets work on most or some dogs. Most gadget/technique failures are actually user error, or lack of user time and patience. Once a habit has set in it takes time to change it and it's generally much harder to train a dog to not do something than to train it to do something.