Alright, so I went ahead and made the move to CM6. (Moto Droid)
Donated for Titanium Backup (one button batch restore for apps, app data, and settings restore job. hell yes), and did a complete wipe.
Just installed the Slayher 1.2ghz kernel.
Quadrant: just over 1500
Benchmark Pi: 1421ms
I'm in love. Now, time to watch battery life over the next couple days (today's will be shit, still doing a lot inside recovery, like backups, and going to work on applying a few themes soon)... curious to see if this new governor in the Slayher kernels ("interactive" governor, versus "on demand" - polling is handled completely different) will provide some good battery life.
After these first few days to check out battery, I'll see if I should configure Juice Defender again.