There are several solutions to the problem you are talking about.
1. Use Net-Remote
2. Use Glissando or Music Lobby with a flash interface.
3. Live with the basic browser interface.
The #1 and 2 options are currently both free for personal use that you can take and adapt to your own preferences or use as is if you like.
Also Mario at Cinemar (
www.cinemaronline.com) is doing some pretty exciting thinigs with a commercial version of Music Lobby to integrate with his Main Lobby suite of front end tools. You can check his progress at the AVS Forum or on his web site.
I think we all owe Ben and Dan a great debt of gratitude since without their effort in developing (for free) the Remote Server plugin it would not be where it is today.
Of course I personally think this is a key feature for Media Center and should be on the fast track by JRiver for improvments and further integration as well as SDKs for skinners abroad. I hope they can somehow devote some resources to do just that, but we also have to realize that they do have limited resources and that these things take time.
Just my 2 cents