If we need to announce something really important, we can still use Notices or User Alerts without overriding the more useful forum node tree view in the homepage. Notices can directly appear on the screen of all guests and logged-in users in all pages, so it would be more useful for announcement purposes. On the other hand, putting the announcements on the homepage only makes it easier for newcomers to read, and is not very meaningful. Back on the old forums with XenPorta installed, I always go straight to forums.pocketmine.net/forums and rarely browse the homepage at forums.pocketmine.net Seriously, do you think announcements are more useful than being able to go to a certain forum immediately?
And XenPorta 2 is not worth the price. 40 bucks, really?! I purchased it but it wasn't much like I expected it to be.