[gierach]

I asked a similar question a few months ago and got mostly the same answers as you. Most people here seem content dealing with the lack of cool Gmail interface stuff and opt to host their own. Someone needs to build a slick gmaily interface that can be plopped on a web server to use your self-hosted email. Bonus points for adding an XMPP chat client so you can use GTalk and see when your contacts are online. If nothing else, web hosting providers would buy this from you to offer their customers.