Hi Jim,
You asked:
"Do you, or does anyone, have recommendations on how to use ajax currently (if not thru the use of ajaxhelper)?"
Just wanted to point out that ajaxhelper includes some useful icons; That's the only way I use it.
The icons comply with the GPL license --a task that may otherwise be tedious to verify individually.
Some icons use reasonably standardized imagery for UI --and is a larger set than available at: acs-subsite/resources