It certainly can be a tough call although I do agree that using the best features at the time is the way I usually go. Just a wee bit gun shy. For example, even using documented and supported features is a risk. As a DBA, I used sp_MakeWebTask extensively to do some pretty cool reporting on my databases. We also used it for certain production projects. Then BOOM! Deprecated and gone. Solution according to MS? "Use SSRS"... heh... yeaaaaahhhh... righttttttt... didn't even come close to what we were doing.