Hello MWM,
1. Maybe I have been misunderstood, Sorry if I have offended you in any way, I didn't want to say that you won't be able to learn fast Silverlight and manage to build a nice application. I was just sharing personal opinion. If you want to migrate to Silverlight as a modern and fast spreading platform, It will not be a mistake. There is no limitation that I can think of, that can stop you from building a slick and nice looking database application using Silverlight. Databinding is fully supported including Telerik ORM OpenAccess. I can advice you to take a look at
this demo application which may help you with your decision. It is using ORM Open Access and has a project you can download.
2. Although the video maybe a little bit misleading, the only way using Reporting in Silverlight application is using RadHtmlPlaceholder. More information and a sample project you can find in this
blogpost. I can't see any limitation that you are using RadHtmlPlaceholder as you get the same experience as using Reporting with ASP.NET (as in fact you are using it ).
Thank you for your interest in our Silverlight controls and I hope I have helped with your desicion.
Sincerely yours,
Boyan
the Telerik team