Don't use bitcoin qt then. I agree it is a bit of a ballache for new users but I don't really think there's any need to use it with all the lite clients we have nowadays. Get one of them or a blockchain.info wallet and you're good to go immediately.
No, I will never leave my coins and private keys on a website I don't control. Maybe that's fine for people who use small amounts of Bitcoin, I use hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of Bitcoin so it simply isn't an option.
I'm going to have to go ahead and advise against storing hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of
BTC on a laptop connected to the internet.
why not? if the computer is clean and he is not using it for something else i can't see any problem, you have a easy spendable wallet in this way, and to be secure that your destkop is clean , format the hdd everytime you put you precious wallet inside
there are virus that target the bios yes, but this is another story