Fur the hids have ballast kits with them that go under the hood too. They really aren't worth all the trouble and expense on a vehicle that didn't come with them. Your existing housings that aren't made for them won't maximize their lighting output either.
Having had them, I'd agree. I liked the light output but they were more trouble than they were worth. I finally got tired of crappy radio reception when my headlights were on so I replaced them with OEM bulbs. And like you said the non-HID housings don't have the projection feature that factory HID housings have