In reply to ljmac.

Member Types are not new roles. Roles determine capabilities within the installation, which Member Types are not intended to do. Instead, think of them more as tags or categories... a way to group members together without actually needing to activate the literal Groups component.

The other two features you suggest are on the BuddyPress roadmap, but there are a few underlying things that need to happen before we can get there. Namely, attachments, and a many-to-many relationship table. Both of these are slated for 2.3, which should enable them for 2.4 and beyond.

We do not want to reinvent anything that's already in WordPress. Our goal is to utilize every existing bit of functionality we possibly can, and contribute upstream anything that makes sense to.