I have some pretty fancy environmental control via my panels enacted in my project.

If I understand you correctly, I'm "almost" sure you can get any functionality you want by proficient panel programming. I've yet to find something I couldn't do with panels.

If on the other hand, you are going for a "look" that panels don't provide (and I really dont' know how this could be ??) then probably a dll solution is best.

Near as I can tell, all the features you listed can be implemented by panels. Maybe not easily or transperent, but I can think of ways to implement them, and I ain't no programming genius!!!

YOur best bet is to be specific. Put your wish list of features in the "user request" forum and watch the yea's and nay's roll in.