To put configs in ~/.program is the convention I learned, not ~/.config/. That came later, and I see 0 reason to pick it up. It's an annoying new hierarchy which I don't even like as a user, so I certainly wouldn't follow it as a developer.
If the programs in question implement the XDG base directory spec properly, then putting `export XDG_CONFIG_HOME=$HOME/.program` in your .profile will make them put config files in .program, not .config.
