I'm not even sure if the board I'm a member of ever allowed us to use the IR from a Treo - you'd still need a rented keypad because the members use a combination of the older grey boxes (required a physical connection) and the newer blue ones. It wouldn't have been something I would even consider switching to a Treo for, anways.

This summer we are switching all boxes to the new style ones and the new keypads (ActiveKey) will have GSM wireless connections so no more cradles needing for nightly syncing. Neat.