What I did was to check for an existing .conf file, and if it didn't exist, or if it threw an error anyway as it didn't include an rpc user/pwd, run the daemon, take the suggested name/pwd and... stick it in the .conf file, because you're going to need it next time you start the daemon before you can do anything.

That's actually a great idea.
The frontend could create the conf file, and save whatever you want in it.
We could make the conf file editable from within the frontend itself. Save the conf file, stop the daemon, restart the daemon, all without the need to restart the frontend itself.
Adding additional Nodes (addnode, as if darkcoin needs those with this fantastic masternode network) would be easy as never before.
Definitely stick a start/stop daemon button in there somewhere, you can always remove it for production and hardcode the startup and shutdown behaviour, I have /path/to/datadir and /path/to/daemon entry boxes too among other things, for testing having the control within the tool is very handy.
At one point I had my app call darkcoind help and then automatically create and place buttons for every call that help listed, but I couldn't find a way of arranging 43 buttons or whatever within a sensibly sized window that didn't look hideous... maybe I'll go with a dropdown menu next time...
