That's because most of the people shooting their big mouths off have never actually built anything that makes real power, and they're nothing more than armchair quarterbacks that run around talking about that time they had a "Hemi 440 six pack Challenger with a 3/4 race cam that pulled the wheels from a 100mph roll", and expect us to believe their bullshit.
I'm a fan of nitrous myself. If your motor is built for it, and you're not stupid with it, a lot of power can be made. Plus you can still keep it reasonably easy to drive on the street.
And, to answer your question about handling spray:
Yes. It will hold the power. My 390 makes in the neighborhood of 500 NA, and I ran a 150 shot of nitrous constantly when it was in my 5000lb Dakota. The block wasn't the weak link in the equation, the transmission was.
