I mean, instead of running 5.1.2P1, P2, D1, D2, D3, D4, D5, D6, or D7 (deep breath) I'd like to run 5.1.2 with the patches i feel i'd like to have.
I think that's an even worse idea. If you think that Netapp's QA is bad now (and I'm not saying it is), you've just increased their workload exponentially because they have to test each combination of patches to make sure they all work together in whatever combination a user might pick.
Ok, how about a fixed set of combinations? For example:
5.1.2P1 - Base 5.1.2 with quota patch 5.1.2P2 - " " " CIFS patch 5.1.2P3 - " " " Fibre Channel patch 5.1.2Px - " " " ...
5.1.2P11 - " " " quota and CIFS patches 5.1.2P12 - " " " quota and Fibre patches 5.1.2P13 - " " " CIFS and Fibre patches
of course this is really only manageable for relatively small values of "x". If "x" is too large, maybe follow this for the most "popular" patches, then have:
5.1.2P99 - Base 5.1.2 with ALL patches
Just 2 more cents worth :)