I can't speak toward the angled mounting or the Australian customs, but I've been using the EMPEG strictly with the buttons on its face in my car for exactly the same reasons you mention. I leave the remote control at home.

When driving, I tend to stick to going forward/backward by a track and changing the volume. If I'm sitting still, I might decide I just *have* to hear some particular track and go zooming through the playlist menus. Nicely, if you're listening to a particular playlist (e.g., a specific album) and you want to go back to hearing your whole collection at random, it's just three clicks on the menu button or wheel that you can do without looking. Other folks who've had the EMPEG for a while longer seem to have a handful of these button sequences memorized.