A lot of very good points.
In your paragraph starting "First of all ...", I'll have to advise that there is one of the SQL posters (which one should be fairly obvious if you've read the threads) that claims he can do all that stuff on his fingers with one hand tied behind his back - and blindfolded. It's just you Boomers (or is it you GenXers; I forget which) who are trying to rob him that can't handle that beautiful simplicity of the present IT.
You should see his response before too long ... perhaps even with expletives deleted.
"....one of the SQL posters (which one should be fairly obvious if you've read the threads) that claims he can do all that stuff on his fingers with one hand tied behind his back - and blindfolded."
I know, but as far as I am concerned, that argument has been put to bed by the President's Panel's preliminary report (dated April 13, if memory serves). If any of the SQL posters want to continue to defend the current system, they do so at the risk of their own credibility.
The SQL posters just loved the headline of the article by the tax research group: "Tax Panel picks apart FairTax proposal"
However, if that same group had written an article about the tax panel's report, it would have been something like this
"Tax Panel Issues mid-term report: Scathing indictment of Current System"
Of course, the tax research organization would never have covered the report that candidly and if they had, the SQLs would have been less than thrilled.