I have softmodded it with Twilight Hack, but I haven't downgraded the IOS 'cause it's said to be brick prone...

Result: I am now able to run homebrew sw, but not backup copies of games.

Homebrew apps worth having: emulators (including scummvm, dosbox... everything except mame), mplayer_ce, some silly homebrew games.

Thanks to the latest HBC and hack, you don't even need Zelda to softmod it, and it's practically brick proof if you install BootMii (there's an installer available).

Risks:
- Nintendo may one day kill homebrew (not sure they can't get rid of the homebrew channel, it feels more like they tolerate it)
- Nintendo may ban you from its servers (but up to now it happened only to people cheating at Mario Kart Wii)

Once you have homebrew, you don't need to get virtual console games. As far as WiiWare is concerned, it's safe to update the system menu (I did to 4.0E) and buy stuff from the Wii Shop (I'm looking forward to seeing Cave Story). With future updates, YMMV.