Well, I'm currently writing my environment around cwm after z3bra's suggestion. It has some really nice defaults, and I've been using it almost completely around the mouse. Haven't got around to trying the groups functionality yet as I haven't had the time, but it sounds nice and simple to use as all you do is say you want this window class to go into this group by default which is basically what I mugged around with wew and my own groups script for a couple a years.

RE: Remapping ESC to capslock is wasted potential. Map it to control instead and get a programmable board like the pok3r so it'll be the same no matter what machine you are on.