mod_vdbh for Apache answers my Apache configuration issues. With this in place, Apache doesn’t need to be HUPed upon configuration changes, and all of the configuration data can be stored in the MySQL database, which means there is no need to write configuration files. I’m not sure how fast it is, but it sounds good. It would, however, be some hefty overhead of the MySQL database were hit on EVERY request. I’ll have to look into that.
The only downside is that it requires Apache 2.0. I have yet to make the big plunge to 2.0… though I’m sure I should any time now.