This is a phenomenal description of p2pool:
I think p2pool is for geeks who like to setup and tune everything themselves. When you can host a node properly (for me this means locally on a host with a good CPU, 2GB RAM on a Linux server dedicated to bitcoind+p2pool, a SSD to store bitcoind's data and with a good QoS setup so that both bitcoind and p2pool don't suffer from other traffic on your WAN connection) and configure a backup pool it's arguably the most reliable and profitable option.
It's not for everyone, but if you are a serious miner and have the network connection and hardware available it's simply the best solution.
Aside from the fact p2pool's 90 day "luck" is at 88.5%, and 30 day "luck" is at 57.1%. Aside from that, yes, it's great.
M