I am currently in a group developing a community of role-play web sites. Usernames here are not just nicknames but characters played. An ideal system would utilize Single Sign-on to maintain each character identity through the various "worlds" (sites).

Having said that, your points #2, #4, and #5 are spot-on. No one is getting paid for this work on our hobby, let alone it being their job. When (not if) the SSO has a problem, the entire community will be down until someone (me?) gets home at night.