Creating a custom Publishing Portal Web site in SharePoint 2010

Custom Web sites built on SharePoint are开发者_运维百科 cropping up everywhere (just visit topsharepoint.com to see). With that said, my question pertains to creating a fully customized, branded site using SharePoint as the CMS as depicted by many of the topsharepoint.com sites.

I understand the concept of creating the custom master master page(s) (SharePoint 2010 even includes a minimal.master to start). The problems I have are:

1. What site template does one use? In 2007 the recommended front-facing Web site site collection template was the Publishing Portal. Is this still the case?
2. What navigation do you use? Do you leverage the OOB navigation? If so, how do you style it extensively?
3. How do you keep the on-page editing capabilities within the new site template?
4. Are there any online tutorials are walk-throughs that address all of these issues? I have been searching, but it's really sparse out there.