OP here.

As a newcomer to VoIP, a lot of it is confusing. I don't consider myself dumb or technically naive, and I've found it pretty difficult to get my head around how all this stuff works.

The Obi is so close to being an awesome consumer device and it was no problem for me to set up, but it's not at the "I can buy this for my parents" level of easy yet.

(FWIW, people like windexh8er totally don't help this situation. Well-reasoned suggestions and links to good documentation would serve the community better than trollery.)