In the trac-discussion on ticket http://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/16379 I read an idea from @WraithKenny about 'types of homepages'. It made me think about an issue I encounter a lot: I have a custom post type (or a custom taxonomy), and the client wants to be able to have an 'archive' of the CPT, but also wants to add some extra info (with custom fields for example) on that CPT-archive page.
With that 'types of homepage' idea, we could have a the possibility to assign a (static) page as the homepage of a Custom Post Type. That page would fit in the normal 'flow' of pages (eg also shows in WP_menus) and can be enhanced with custom_fields etc.
To clarify (and maybe for someone to give any better advice), my working methods now:
Right now I use either of these options:
a) I make a page with custom temlate on which I load the CPT-archive (on the template file) and the user can add extra info on the page. Downside of this is that the name of the page will usually be the same as the name of the CPT, which will give a name-collision, or the page-slug will have a number behind it.
b) I make a page with an arbitrary name and a custom template and a relation to a CPT (with a custom field). Then on the archive-template (archive-CPTname.php) I query for the page with association to the CPT and load that content. (+ ofcourse the CPT-archive.