I haven't read beyond the first page. =)

I have 5 inside cats. One male, four females, all fixed. I have 4 different cat tree things for them to scratch on. I cut nails about once every two weeks. Our stuff doesn't get ruined. They don't scratch on furniture or the bed or the carpet in the living room. (they also don't jump on the counter or the kitchen table). As soon as a cat comes to live with us, their nails get trimmed with all the rest. For the little kittens, they learn fairly quick that it's easier and faster to just sit there and let me cut their nails. We took in an 8 year old Persian from BYB who had lived in a shed her whole life and never had her nails cut. She still gets fussy, but she has never tried to bite me or anything like that.

I have no intentions of ever declawing anything. Ever. I think most people do it because they are lazy, and don't want the hassle of cutting the cats nails.