I think its about not jumping straight in !! And spending a little time working out what the box can do and then what you want it to do for you.
I really wanted:
nzb downloading and multiple HDD support.
Now it turns out that there are potentially 3 ways I can get nzb downloading but only 1 way to get multiple HDDs.
So my options are:
1) Stock Firmware (Opened up) with Optware support (bootstrap).
2) Stevie Wonder w/ Optware bootstrap
But neither of these give support for > 2 USB HDDs
The third option is one of the Linux images. However these are a lot more tricky to get running BUT if you do get it going properly then its just like have a seriously underpowered PC at your disposal