Rendering is Fucking Wack!

I've been using FCP7 for the past couple of days.
I'm cutting a massive, hour long performance of Alan Moore. It's very long with loads of effects and all sorts of aspect ratios ranging from VHS in 4:3 to some anamorphic 2.35:1.
I started it in FCP7 and it's so complicated I haven't dared try and move it over to FCPX because I just know it'll create some kind of online nightmare. Anyway, even if I could migrate the project I am editing alongside 2 other editors who don't use FCPX so I'm stuck with it.
What's my point? I don't actually have one except to say that rendering is a bitch. I'd forgotten how much of my time I used to waste rendering. Thank fuck for FCPX.

Turn Off Background Render

Background rendering sounds great and works very well, but actually most of the time you don't need it.

The real time playback of un-rendered clips is handled so well that rendering everything all the time is just a waste of processing power and disk space - remember all render files are ProRes.

Turn it off: Final Cut Pro / Preferences / Playback

Then you can render everything by pressing SHIFT + CONTROL + R or selectively render by selecting clips and pressing CONTROL + R.

Am I just trying to make it more like FCP7? Er....maybe.