Sorry to say but with the lack of answers I've had to give up on AC for the moment due to what clearly seems to be some major problems with the installer that manual installation does not fix.

All php tests Ive run on the little feedback Ive had say things should be working which is why Im, sadly, currently left pointing the finger at AC.

It may be some ac install incompatibility with a newly compiled php (5.1.0 which is the latest my obsd system will support till i can go visit the colo and move to debian) or it may be that there are some serious flaws with the 0.7.1 installation which I didnt previously encounter my original, dumped install ran 0.7 upgraded to 0.7.1.

Whatever the case - I havent gotten much feedback and sadly have to resort to basecamp handouts ... that said Im still willing to listen/help debug these (widely experienced) installer issues if anyone on the AC team is interested in solving them ... great product; wish I could run it.