Well, I enjoyed the episode, although watching Charley's less recent past was pretty painful, too. I was suprised when it turned out to be Charley that killed Ethan...or that Jack beat him, considering he single-handedly lifted Charley off the ground earlier. They sort of hinted at superhuman strength, there, but I think it may just have been good military training.
I also think people are still forgetting: these are action heroes, they're partially traumatized crash survivors. Survival isn't a trivial task, either. They have virtually no tools and few survival skills. Hunting and gathering takes time, and the few attempts at long term survival have been resisted by many of the survivors. Now add on to that the fact that there are people on the island who are hostile, dangerous and armed, in some cases.
What we don't know is how many of the survivors even know about the Black Rock, the frenchwoman, the Others and so forth. Assuming all the main characters do, they aren't all motivated to do so. As Locke pointed out: this is their home territory...and the survivors still don't have a base of operations or a fortification. They are woefully underprepared for some of these tasks.
For example: all we know about the cable is that it's coming out of the sea and going into the jungle. Let's assume it's a joint power and maybe even data cable. What exactly are they going to do with it? They don't have the tools or the expertise to do much with it. Go to where the power is? Good idea...but now we've got a subset of the survivors in a foreign jungle (not the area they have limited familiarity with) moving through a booby-trapped jungle that has at least a single well-armed and possibly delusional inhabitant with a high-powered rifle (with scope). And said individual (who's already captured the only inhabitant with military training, mind you) claims that she was driven out by a hostile group of Others that she is hiding from. In the same jungle with a phantom monster and polar bears running amok.
I'm not saying that they shouldn't be doing it, I'm just saying it isn't suprising that they aren't.
Right now, we've got the following mysteries:
- Who knocked out Sayid?
- What is the hatch?
- Who or what are the others?
- Why is Walt Special?
- Why do the Others want Claire's baby?
- Is Rosseau sane, and is her story true?
- Who and where is Vincent?
- What will happen if Claire doesn't raise her baby?
- What is the monster?
- What happened with Locke and the monster?
- How did Locke get use of his legs back?
- Is Jack's Dad alive, an illusion or something else (others)?
- Who were the inhabitants of the cave?
- What were the french scientists doing?
- Where is the Black Rock, and why did Rosseau seek it?
- What is the facility that Rosseau was kicked out of?
I'm sure there's ones I'm missing.
The trick, though, is that the mysteries are like dominoes. Once they reveal one or two, many of the others will fall into place. If we understand what the three 'magic kids' on the show are, then we can understand the others much better. If we understand the others, we understand Rosseau much better, and possibly the monster (who may be Vincent) and so forth. If we find out about the monster, we find out about Locke's interaction with him, and possibly about the Others or Rosseau...and so forth.
However, if the writers are smart, then they'll do what Alias and B5 and some shows have done...which is to address the big mysteries, and then move on. Give us a little sugar, please.
I was just think to that they really could do flash forward shows as "what if they got off the island this is my life now stuff". 
