Mads Nissen has a very good post about the SmartPart and its effect on the SharePoint community. He also includes a great graphic showing the various customization methods. You must read it!
Mads also points out that Steve Ballmer stated SharePoint is the number one growing product, yet the developer support is certainly less that other areas of Microsoft's business. I second his call for more content.
Amanda, your virtual SPS user group might help in this area. Any news on that?