Wanted to get the results out in the open. Most of the people asking whether or not they should do an FireWire SSD boot drive were systematically fed "it'd be a waste, FW800 isn't fast enough to use an SSD to it's full potential." No, it can't …but somehow I'll still sleep at night knowing that an internal SSD could open that 200MB image faster.
As far as an upgrade goes, anyone saying it's not worth it hasn't actually tried it…
When I DO get my next iMac it'll have a Thunderbolt port on it, then I figure I can connect this SSD via a Thunderbolt > eSATA adapter and be able to use it at it's full potential.
Thunderbolt will be pretty much backward compatible with everything. USB, FireWire, eSATA, Ethernet, etc. I'm expecting some VERY sweet hubs to come out this summer. Technically you could have a Mac with a single Thunderbolt port that could be connected to a hub with whatever ports you need. I'm assuming since it's built in conjunction with the mini display port Apple will soon be offering displays with all the standard ports we see now (and possibly more), but everything will be neatly carried through one cable.
I'm just hoping that this takes off more than FW... but I think it will since Intel is backing it and putting it on their chips. as opposed to FW which was just a standard and didn't require chip level integration.