We've been discussing devicetree and it's application to the BBB kernel here for quite a while, so I thought you might be interested in some of the perspective on devicetree in the wider arm world. Note that the discussion is fairly long and you probably don't want to read it all, but it's fairly recent and shows a quite different point of view.
More here http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.linux.debian.ports.arm/12410
and just as I post that, gmane seems to have keeled over, try this instead
https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups#!topic/linux.kernel/d93Afd_ZhLE
the subject of the thread is:
"device tree not the answer in the ARM world [was: Re: running Debian on a Cubieboard]" just in case google keels over and dies too 
and just as I post that, gmane seems to have keeled over, try this instead
https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups#!topic/linux.kernel/d93Afd_ZhLE
the subject of the thread is:
"device tree not the answer in the ARM world [was: Re: running Debian on a Cubieboard]" just in case google keels over and dies too
