So is this all true even if we followed the Sticky's advice and never installed iTunes?
Looks like it is. I bought an iPod nano 5th gen today, never had iTunes on my system. MC recognizes it and writes to it, but no tracks show up on the the iPod, although it does report the used space correctly.
Then I installed iTunes, having read elsewhere that it may be necessary to "initialize" the iPod with iTunes. Didn't help. After I transferred a few tracks using iTunes, MC thinks the iPod is empty now.
Of course iTunes is horrible beyond words. Not only is it incapable of getting cover art correctly, but it can't even transfer albums in a reliable manner! I transferred a single album (one title, one artist), and now the iPod shows the album twice: one "copy" contains the first two tracks, the other "copy" has the remaining eight. How dumb is that?
While Apple is the scourge, there has been plenty of time to update MC to say it does not support the 5th gen iPods. I would probably not have bought the player had I known that iTunes would be my only option. I was certain I'd be able to use MC. And MC still claims to do its work, copying the tracks and all, while the authors know it doesn't really work. That's not right, either, I think.