>When using SPT, does it require a lot of modifications/tweaking
> (more so than using views) to get things to work?

I've been using SPT when using VMP n-tier services and I have not seen any changes.

> Is all the same framework functionality available? Should these questions be posted to their discussion site instead? :)

I think you should. There are plenty of people there that could be give you more information about this topic.