[drivebyacct2]

Yes. CM has rewritten their modifications for ICS so that they integrate side-by-side with the OS settings. If you didn't see the boot screen or the ROM version, you would just think that you got a whole bunch more features and nice little performance tweaks. They did an amazing job of keeping it stock and adding functionality where it made sense. All without the awkward, disorganized "CMParts" of CM(<9). It's all quite wonderful.

[mtgx]

I'd rather CM sticks as close as possible to AOSP. Fewer potential issues for them in the future, and they get more time to port to more devices, and to make the "master" ROM more stable.

[drivebyacct2]

You can always just take the vendor overlays and build JB-AOSP. Then you don't have to wait for merges.