This is a great forum on a topic that I have spent considerable time debating. First, In response to Rovert; In terms of a ready made prgramming solution, Crestron has developed what you are asking for. However, It is not turnkey, and, it requires hardware, and costs alot more then the pronto. It is an RF unit and can be the size of a small laptop.
The tactile button thing is something that I have played closer attention to. Generally speaking, most people gravitate towards a select group of redundant functions. We use channel, volume, play, stop, and a few more. Those functions can be had by using the existing tactile buttons on the pronto. The problem I see is navigating the sat or digital cable Perhaps the DVD menu also. The star pattern is becoming a common item on remote configurations.It needs to be tactile. Perhaps at the bottom where the mouse buttons are.
Personally, I find the pronto much more ergo then Phast, and even Crestron. Many of our clients want the RC5000 despite owning elaborate control systems merely because they can run it in one hand. You can eliminate the " Buttonmania " that can be seen on the RC2000 and various other learning pieces through the pronto which is a great development.
On the programming side of things, even if a person is a good programmer, designing a remote layout that is NEOPHYTE friendly is an art form in itself. Envision yourself as the baby sitter going into a new house finding that remote for the first time. Can they run the system? And turn it off? How about watching the tv, and then switching to cd, is the TV still on? How do they turn that off? A holistic approach to the selection of devices in regards to their operation is needed so that the remote control can be layed out as smoothly as possible. That is not Philips problem, that is ours in our gear selection.
In conclusion, the Pronto is not perfect, but its better then anything else out there in terms of making more complex systems a bit less intimidating by hiding many of the functions that are needed until they are actually being used.
I can only pray for the Pronto Pro. Color LCD!!