Hmm...there's not much over at the "Locus" sites on CWRL, but looking at
http://locus.cwrl.utexas.edu/spinuzzi/
it looks as if there may be more possibilities for customization on the locus site. The "search" feature is one I really miss on TypePad.
Because I find the current incarnation of the CWRL's site rather hard to find things on, I am posting the link to the admin guide here so I can get to it more easily in the future:
Locus guide
Locus
Yes, the Locus sites are much more fully featured. They're truly content management systems, which means that you can open them up to a community, upload your own logo, set up a blogroll, set up a search feature, etc. We'll be easing in support for creating your own themes as well.
The drawback is that these standalone sites are somewhat more complex than MovableType (though the interface is much easier). We hope to develop the Drupal documentation further as we go. So your suggestions continue to be really valuable! CS