thanks for sharing.

1) "Simple alternate menu" => you can easily build that in minutes by 
creating your own customized menu via drag&drop.

2) There is one major reason why the menu button can't be used like 
in Front Row: Remote Buddy follows a totally different philosophy.

While Front Row is designed as a full-screen application wanting all 
your attention for its entire runtime, can't be run in the background 
and does not allow you to enter and leave it at will (you *always* 
have to go up and down the entire menu hierarchy), Remote Buddy is 
all different:

It can run in the background and can easily be switched from and to. 
Why is this relevant? Because if "Menu" goes up a menu level, "left" 
and "right" are used for embedded elements like volume sliders, "up" 
and "down" for scrolling and "play" for selection, how could you 
switch from and to the menu without leaving it Front Row style level 
by level? You could use the hold status of the Menu button, but how 
intuitive is that?

3) [removed for now]

4) Thanks for the babysitter analogy! Gave me a couple new ideas 
right away ;-)

Best regards, 
Felix