Hey Torn.
A lot of these plugins involve some hackjobs on your current php scripts. Since they're all written by individuals rather than companies mistakes are sometimes (or often) made and need some corrections. So sometimes its not easy at all to get these things installed.
Some things to look out for when trying to install some plugins
1) make sure its been updated for 1.5, most older plugins may not make an ounce of sense
2) if it involves editing your php files make sure that you back up everything to assure nothing goes wrong, and you can easily re-upload the working backup
I too have given up on a couple of plugins. Wp-Polls.php for 1.3 was incompatible with 1.5, and by the time the 1.5 version came out it was buggy as hell. took me almost a full day to correct all his problems, but I think my feedback to him helped and he's gotten most of it corrected
Anyways a little knowledge of PHP doesnt hurt and now is a great chance to learn as you go along.