Deleting Documents folder and replacing with symlink - Downsides?

Question

Background:
I have a new iMac with the dual internal drive option (SSD + HDD) running Lion. I am trying to set up the system to have the OS and applications on the SSD with documents and media on the HDD. In researching my options I found three paths often suggested:
1. Create folders in the HDD and save your documents there + point applications like iTunes and iPhoto to the HDD for storage.
2. Move your entire home folder to the HDD.
3. Replace certain folders of your home folder with symbolic links that point to the actual folders in the HDD (i.e., Documents, Downloads, Movies, Pictures, Public) + leave certain folders in the SDD (i.e., Library, Desktop, Music) + point certain applications to the HDD for storage.
After weighing the pros and cons of the options, I plan on using option number 3. Option 1 required the least "advanced" work, but had the downside of needing to change preferences in all my programs that default to folders like Downloads to the HDD as well as the good chance that I or others in my family would forget to navigate to the HDD to save documents. Option 2, moving the entire home folder seemed simple after reading the steps, but came with two main downsides: 1) warnings not being able to boot should the OS stop recognizing to look to the HDD for the user account and messing up the library and 2) not gaining the performance boost of keeping certain things on the SSD (e.g., the library file of iTunes and Aperture, files for current active projects kept on the Desktop).
That left me with Option 3, the one with the most setup work, but hopefully a good balance of later ease and performance.
Question:
In order to set up Option 3, my understanding is that I need to create a new folder in the HDD, delete the usual folder in the user home folder, and then create a symlink that lives in the user home folder so programs reference it and seemlessly access the folder in the HDD.
Does this really work without any problems? In order to delete folders like Documents and Downloads, you need to ignore warnings that say the folder "can’t be modified or deleted because it’s required by Mac OS X" and then use terminal commands to do so.
Of course, I plan to replace these folders with symlinks, so I think all should be fine and applications will just see the newly created folder without a hitch. I just want to be sure.
Here are some links to articles outlining the method:
http://gigaom.com/apple/how-to-create-and-use-symlinks-on-a-mac/
http://macperformanceguide.com/SettingUp-Relocating-Documents.html
http://martinbay.net/how-to-move-user-folder/
Thanks for the help!

Answer 1

Just a note... I've noticed a problem in some sandbox apps when trying to save a file to the symlinked Documents directory.. depending on how the app saves the file, it might throw an error.