panels2+views2+drupal6 - what aspects of panels i got to work and how

hi,
i am interested in using panels2 within a drupal 6 installation, in conjunction with views2.

my impression is that much of the functionality in the current situation with the most recent downloads of these 3 things is pretty clunky in parts but works fine in other parts.

in particular, i am thinking of the following (until of course newer versions come out -- thanks developers for working on those...)

so, AS OF NOW, i am thinking of:

i will NOT use:
on admin/panels page: Node panes, Panel nodes, Panel pages, View panes

i WILL use:
on admin/panels page: Mini panels

when Editing a specific Mini panel (on the /admin/panels/panel-mini/xyzpanel/edit-general page),
i will NOT use: Context
i WILL use: Preview, Layout, Settings, Layout Settings, Content

when adding a Pane using the Add pane button @ /admin/panels/panel-mini/xyzpanel/edit-content
when I am in the Add content window:
when using Views:
(using a view called VehicleForSaleListing)

i will NOT use: VehicleForSaleListing block
i WILL use: VehicleForSaleListing Defaults

It took a lot of trial and error to decide what to use + what not to use, but for me, that is what it boiled down to...

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the WAY that i will use the above combo of stuff is:

1. create a View. the default of the View has Node:NID argument which is taken from Provide default argument... PHP code... which uses ereg regular expression to get the NID from $_GET['q'] of the url.

2. create a minipanel which uses a Pane using the default of the View (created in step 1).
the minipanel may include other panes above or below to the left or right of the aforementioned pane. (That is the entire point of what I am doing here.)

3. use admin/blocks to have my minipanel show up on the correct urls.

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does this make sense to anyone?

is anyone else doing this?

is this helpful to anyone?

am i crazy to be doing it this way?

basically boiled down, what i am doing, is using the most current versions of drupal+views+panels, and taking advantage of the great and non-glitchy themeing aspects of views. yet also taking advantage of at least, the page layout flexibility of panels.

that is the only aspect of panels which i can figure out so far given my current versions of everything.

anything else related useful?

thanks and keep up the good work on getting the Panels fully operational for drupal 6.