[cheesegrits]

Here's an oxymoron:

Do you really think a hacker will care that you like only plugins, being lazy to edit 2-3 lines of code in the actual VB files?

... and ...

3. A team of vBulletin programmers should be assigned for the site maintenance only, it should not be a burden for administrators to edit and upgrade every time to the latest vBulletin version.

First you say people are being lazy if they don't want to edit files directly, then you seem to be saying it's entirely reasonable to require a team of programmers to upgrade a vB site.

Why do you think vBulletin has gotten itself a reputation as being an absolute pig to upgrade? And why do you think the authors have gone to such trouble to create the plugin / hook / product mechanisms? Because of all those friendly neighborhood hackers encouraging everyone to merrily hack away on their PHP files, making upgrading a complete nightmare.

If you can possibly code what you need using the upgrade-proof API, you should. And I don't blame the vB authors for trying to encourage you to. If you take those shortcuts, it's not the people who don't want to install your hacks who are being lazy, it's you.

Just my $0.02. YMMV. Etc.

-- hugh