I purchased a URC MX-890 (remote) and MRF-350 (base station) after being fed up with the Harmony 900's RF delay as well. Like you, I found myself queuing up the number of key presses and then waiting for the remote to catch up.

The URC MX-890 that I purchased is significantly faster, even with the RF -> IR conversion taking place. Also in terms of RF signal distance, the MX-890 blows away the Logitech 900. I find myself being able to control stuff on my setup from outside the house even where with the Logitech 900 I had to be within 20-30 feet it seemed.

Compared to the Logitech, the URC setup is costly but the power and functionality it gives is much better, not to mention the build quality and performance.

Although you won't be able to get the official software for programming from URC themselves, many shops will provide you with it if you ask them and purchase one of the items from them. In my experience, most authorized dealers were willing to offer me a 20% flat discount off the retail pricing when I purchased mine (last month). For the base station (URC MRF-350), Amazon still seems to be cheaper.

Programming it by yourself is not too hard -- it just takes a little while to get the hang of it and then there's not much to it. I'm still learning the advanced functionality but I got all the basics working on my setup.

Hope this helps.

P.S. Interesting username -- hope you weren't having to take it for too long!