This is a temporary forum so we can't expect LP to mess around with hacks and extensions to improve usability. However, if you use Firefox with the greasemonkey extension (http://greasemonkey.mozdev.org/), there are a number of client-side scripts here that could really make your life easier:
http://userscripts.org/tag/phpbb
Highlighs are:
. quick reply box
. redirect suppressor (get rid of that irritating delay after posting)
. show whole thread on a single page
. all kinds of avatar/sig hiders