"Why such an aversion to RPMs, LOL?"
Because RPM does not have automatic dependency checking. That means if you install package A, you need to manually download and install package B and C if they are dependencies... then B and C have dependencies, and so on and so forth. A large install can easily hae 200+ dependencies or more (like KDE, Gnome, X, etc.) RPM doesn't handle this automatically, so you are left to find, compile, and install them all yourself, making sure that in doing so, the new versions don't interfere with other software you have installed. Yum can handle some of these functions, but it still just installs a few packages off your CD's, it's nowhere near as comprehensive as something like apt (debian, ubuntu, mepis, xandros, etc.) or portage (gentoo) which have enormous package repositories open to the public with many thousands of packages that are constantly updated.
This is why everyone who has used RPM distros and more sophisticated package management systems hates RPM's so much. It's just too hard to get stuff working.
Generally, distros like Red Hat, Fedora, PCLinuxOS are quite easy to install out of the box. They install and just work fine. The problem comes later when you want to add new software. It took me 2 days to get a media player working because I had to find/build/download/install all the dependencies in red hat. The same thing in Gentoo took 1 command, "emerge vlc", and it did everything for me.
I don't want to have to worry about dependencies, I want it to be taken care of automatically.
RPM/yum is a relic of a former era, when computers did not routinely have connections to the internet and installs were all done from CD's.
"My problem is, with some of the harder distros, (Debian, Gentoo, Slack) I can't even get started"
I wouldn't recommend Gentoo or Slack for a beginner. Debian would probably be ok, but there are easier distros out there. Gentoo is very easy to use once you get it installed, but the install is a pretty big hill to get over first. That's why people suggest things like Ubuntu, Xandros, Mepis, and the like. These all have both simple, automated installs AND good package management so you can install things later on without the hell of RPM's. Gentoo doesn't take a brain surgeon to figure out, it's really not that bad once you get a few basic concepts down, but it's definitely harder to install than most distros. Once installed though, it's the easiest distro to use (imho).
) As far as the RPM vs DEB thing, I prefer Deb's, it's probably just what you start out with. Linux is getting just like Windows XP with it's "point and click" type installations, not being a "gamer", I've heard Linux still lacked in that department. 
