It will basically be just like now, but with different software. The downtime has likely also affected people posting. Sorry for that!

On getting the CMS, the real difference is the front page stuff and not having to have wordpress on the front. The internal blog feature is not often used on the sites I've seen that use the CMS... Is it worth $90 to have the CMS functionality? dunnno.

Is it worth ~$200 to get real forum software? You bet.