Is that a completely different website?
I too would have thought the actual Lab Caches would be more genuine and... as you say, integrated.
I was a little surprised about the logging process, too, but I also thought that was just because it was the Feb Trial thing
Don't get me wrong, Groundspeak provide a great service, the site is stable with a pleasant interface etc and they list millions of caches... but sometimes I do think one of us could handle these little things better
Oh, and I personally wouldn't go as far as saying challenges were better, but at least you could write a log for them!