Hi,
Thought you might find this module that I just put up of some interest, it is not a competing module, nor could it (logically) have been part of this module, but I would think it would appeal to the same sort of users.
Formatters for Node Reference fields (catchy name, I know, but Node Reference formatters was taken) adds all non-Node Reference formatters (FileField formatters, Text field formatters, etc) to Node Reference so that a user can render a Node Reference out as if it where one of it's fields instead of the Node itself.
The object passed back to the originating formatter is currently picked up by basic logic, it checks what the formatter is expecting then cycles through the available fields of the referenced node to find an appropriate field, then passes that on. There could definitely be a UI to allow finer grained control, but it wasn't something I needed while writing it.
Check it out at http://drupal.org/project/formatters4nodereference, and if you do like it and you are interested enough I would be happy to hand over the reigns, as it is something that I needed, but doubtfully something that I will have any time for in the future, unless I need to scratch an itch again.
Cheers,
Deciphered.