C is supposed to be a timesaving tool for simpler programs, but I could have done this in asm in seconds :)

Wrong, C is a time saving tool for complex and bigger programs as well and mostly people use C for bigger projects and rearely use for tiny things.

Still, I'm going to keep playing around with it, if I can figure out all the nuances, it should be great for simple and/or non-critical stuff.

Almost all professional micro developers do use C for almost all big and complex project. Including critical stuff. Most of the professionals use Assembly only when some time critical module is to be implemented. But very few professionals use SDCC most of them use KEIL. Now since you have started using C don't step back stick to it, SDCC is not a bad compiler if used with good IDE such as MIDE available from www.opcube.com it is a very good tool. SDCC is a mature and stable compiler and can be used for critical projects. The support team of SDCC too is very quick and active most of the bugs are fixed in very less time. One more thing I must tell is SDCC was not developed right from scratch for micros it was ported and modified for this purpose thus it is not as efficient as KEIL which was developed right from scratch keeping micros in mind. However SDCC too is quite good and stable after a little practice with SDCC you will learn allmost all syntaxes and programming tricks.

Regards,
Prahlad Purohit