My problem is that I'm not a Linux god. So without rehashing the debate about backwards compatibility, I'll just say that suppose there are some new updates to the RAID implementation and I end up screwing up my data. Maybe I just don't choose the right compile flags to ensure compatibility or something like that.

What I am saying is that I don't quite trust myself with software ;-).

Also what if I have a catastrophic hardware failure (fried motherboard or something) and have to rebuild everything. I KNOW that it is possible to rebuild everything to get the data off the drives, but maybe I'm not capable of doing it without making a mistake somewhere along the way.

I'm not saying I'm an idiot, just that I've come to understand that I figure things out after stubbing my toe a couple times. I don't want to stub my toe at a critical time in the recovery process.

Not disagreeing with you at all, I just have a few concerns given my ability (or lack of) to fly by the seat of my pants without making any mistakes.