Couldn't agree more. UPnP is evil. I've never found it to be worth a darn. I've also found that the overwhelming majority of people never need to forward any ports. Just as you said. There are some however that do. Sometimes it's because they are heavy gamers who have a lot of ports in use. Some have other hardware devices/servers/etc... that need specific ports. But generally; ports shouldn't have to be forwarded. As for the firewalls/Stateful Packet Inspection found in most common consumer grade all in one routers; I've never been a fan of them. I've seen them cause way too many problems. Same with ALG/SIP. I'm all for firewalls, just not an integrated one in the router. You can get excellent hardware firewalls new and used for under $50. And when used properly, software firewalls like zonealarm and black-ice are exceptional. The internal firewall of a combo router/switch/firewall/wireless AP are usually a simple ON/OFF. I prefer a firewall that I can configure specifically.

But that's just me. Then again; there is no way in the world I would ever use Norton's Anti-virus on my computer either. Can't tell you all the problems that damn thing will give you. But generally; voip shouldn't require you to forward ports. Most people don't have to do it.