More or less for the reasons you described (although I never have problems loading patched ganes - NTSC games just come out B&W), I purchased an NTSC-PAL Convertor from Maplins. So I can now avoid doing the PAL patches. This box sits between the PS2 AV outputs and the PAL TV. Just whip it away for PAL games.

But search the forum for Black & White, PAL, NTSC and see how others have fared with patches - some a lot better than me.