As another stubborn, die-hard, set-in-my-ways old geezer I say give the girl another chance!
I, too, have fought the Lightroom Database approach with tooth and nail, but I'm finally coming around to the idea that it may well be worth getting rid of some of my old habits to have a smoother workflow.
I love the Develop module, even with occasional side trips to CS5, but the real kicker for me is the Print module. Nevermore will I print from Photoshop directly! Lightroom presets alone have saved me a huge pile of wasted paper.
And as for B&W, I find the Advanced B&W mode on my Epson 3800, with Eric Chan's ABW profiles, to give me much better results than I could get with QTR on my old 2200.
Many happy anniversaries!
Eric