Ahh, I see, Luke, this makes perfect sense with non-objects.
I'll have to take a look ... yes, avoiding ad_page_contract is unfortunately the right thing to do (until we figure out how to integrate form building with ad_page_contract, there's no reason we can't). "self-submission" and a single form to create and edit get messy but have the advantage of only requiring one set of "element" calls to be generated. So if you want to change the form you only have to edit one piece of code to do it.
But it does get messy. A tool like this can help and integration with ad_page_contract would (*will*!) help, too.
Tom ... let's wait until after beta, at least, to put your package in?
