Personally I say, play any instrument however you want to play it. Whatever makes you happy; whatever gets you the results you want.

But you might also want to look into Alaska fingerpicks before you give up on the idea of fingerpicks full stop.

http://www.eaglemusicshop.com/details1.asp/ProductID/4163/sid/195/alaska-pik-plastic-or-brass.htm

I used to think I simply couldn't use fingerpicks until I discovered these. I've never been able to use any other kind. These are the only ones I know that are like "fingernail extensions". All other fingerpicks seem to sit on your fingerpad; these sit on the nail.

It took me a while to get used to them, but now they're fine.

Irrespective of where you put the strings on a banjo, there are certain things you just can't do flatpicking. On another recent thread, we've been talking about Pete Seeger's playing: he couldn't have played what he played if he'd been flatpicking.

There are plenty of chords in which you wouldn't be able to play all the notes simultaneously without having to stop the unwanted in-between strings (which you wouldn't have to do if you were using fingers) Also your notes in a chord are never quite 'simultaneous' with flatpicking the way they are with fingers.

Rapid movements across larger intervals - say two or three frets from your 1st string to your 4th string - require so much more arm movement using a flatpick than they would using fingers.

One great thing about the banjo's layout is that you can do super-fast movements between the first string and the 5th string (using your middle finger and thumb). To do the same thing on the kind of banjo you're describing would mean rapid alternation between two consecutive strings. Doing that using a flatpick is much less fluid and requires a good deal more practice. There's a good reason flamenco guitarists don't use flatpicks.

I appreciate what you're saying about Maybelle Carter's style of guitar playing, but she didn't play half as fast as banjo bum-dittying sometimes gets. Speaking for myself, I would have to put in a lot of practice to be able to be able to do what you're suggesting cleanly and at speed; and in terms of hand and arm-movements it's always going to be an energy-inefficient way of playing.

Do you have a link to PATEK's website? I'd be interested to hear his/her stuff.