I was concerned that the connectors would weigh the cord down, but so many people are doing it and liking it... It couldn't be all bad. I'll try on one or two tools first.

Regarding the power thing. The tool is OFF when you plug in. But with the True1, you don't have to unplug the cord from the outlet. So when they refer to the power being "live", they mean that the plug is in the electrical outlet, you then plug that cord into the tool, but the tool is switched off. With the other Neutrik system (not True1) you should unplug the cord from the outlet before putting the tool on the power cord. To me, the convenience of this system is that you can switch at the tool without having to unplug at the outlet each time and not have multiple cords everywhere.
My ultimate plan is to do something like I saw in a magazine. This guy had a rope/wire attached to the ceiling, maybe approx 4" below the ceiling. Then, he had something like shower curtain rings and attached the power cord to the rings so that as you pulled it out, you got more line and when you didn't need it, it "accumulated" at one end (similar to a shower curtain/rod system). I'm probably not describing it as fabulously as the picture showed. But by doing this, you have the minimum cord in the working area...just enough for you to move the tool comfortably to where it needs to go and not have it get in the way. The plan would be to also hang the vacuum tube from the same line so that they move together. That's the grand plan...thus far, I've only been able to try to manage the vacuum tube with a "pvc pipe"...that didn't work as well as I had hoped.