re: Have you looked into Gentoo?
I think gentoo would be great for a hobby horse or a home PC- but an applied 'configuration' is exactly what I'm looking for in a work machine- RH is pretty internally consistent, and once you are used to it things make 'sense'- Let someone else make the design decisions about the distro and its flavorings added.
However, if I ever go linux for home or home office, I'll certainly look into it.