Thats cool. In all honesty, without rekindling the flame war, integrating this with the upcoming 64-bit edition of UNRaid along with maybe the kernel not so neutered down with KVM/QEMU support, UNRaid would be a killer NAS solution without deviating too much from the appliance methodology.
Correct.
Some like and prefer the "appliance" approach that has existed for a very long time. I am one of those.
Some like and prefer the I have everything at my finger tips. This is all fine and dandy, different strokes for different folks.