if there is no link in the admincp, then either the autoinstaller couldnt make the change to your admincp-index.php page, or you simply didnt copy it from gish/gab/rc1/admincp
Nothing much can speed things up anymore than they are. IMO, this is totally usable. The couple of things that need tweaking are of minimal consequence. The biggest problem is making it a little more obvious how the system works however once you have it up and running its pretty obvious.
ANyhooo - right now Im on vacation in Spain so there isnt a great deal I can do until I get back. The release of vb3.5 is causing most mackers to spend most of their time rewriting and porting all their stuff over and Im no exception there