Thanks for the suggestion, I'll make sure to try it!

Continuing with my problem, I just found a handy little utility that just saved my bacon. It's called SharePod, and it lets you copy everything from the iPod back to the computer.

For it to work I had to check "manually manage music and videos" in iTunes, and strangely enough that made iTunes read all the stuff off of the iPod. But it still doesn't re-create the iTunes library. Shame.
Oh well, since I've got all the files from the iPod itself now, it'll be very easy to restore if I do have to erase it after all. (most likely I guess)...