And back to P2Pool he went ...
Ok here's what I've figured out.
The stats you get from
http://127.0.0.1:9332/static/ when running p2pool are what you might call indicative at best. So if you're sat staring at those to see how it's going, you're not actually getting the real story.
The *only* way I can figure out to see how well p2pool works for you is to write down when you started mining on it, then watch your BTC wallet and add up the income from blocks as they appear. Divide your income by time and you can figure out a 24hr income rate to compare with other mining pools you may have used. (Don't forget pending payouts!) You also need to leave p2pool running for at the very least 3 days, more like a week to 10 days before you finally get to see what it all averages out at. Even then you're vulnerable to hitting a lucky or unlucky week.
The stats on p2pool are bizarre. I keep thinking I understand them, but then odd things happen that prove that I don't. I'm probably being dumb. I'll keep staring at them
The "Current payout to default address" is actually pretty useful, so there is that.
I can't speak for everyone who's tried out p2pool and thought "nahhh", but I think for me, the main one was not having any clue how well it was doing even after 24hrs. Compared to any other pool out there it feels like gambling. On the other pools you can see per share pretty much what you've got in 24hrs. In p2pool it's cross your fingers, see how lucky you were in the last 24hrs, and don't expect it to do the same thing tomorrow. A good day is a very good day. A bad day is a very bad day.
Basically, I'm taking the leap of faith and seeing what returns I actually get out of the thing over an extended period, and lo and behold, so far it's paying out more than my previous pool. I know that will drop away as luck averages out, but it still looks like it will turn out marginally better than a standard pool.
The other thing to love about it is the mining transactions just appear in your BTC wallet as mining transactions. There's no minimum limit on withdrawals, no waiting for an auto-payout threshold to get reached, just what you got from each block as it appears. No MtRed (or insert any other pool name here) to fold on you unexpectedly either.
It sort of reminds me of the jump in the matrix.
The numbers do work out, but you have to really believe!