Until a couple of weeks ago, I felt exactly like you do. I was seriously ready to pitch my TP2 out the nearest window, say goodbye to SERO, and sign up for a regular Sprint plan and buy myself an Evo, not caring how much it would cost. I was so frustrated with this phone and having to soft reset three times a day.
I was running the Sprint ROM and eventually switched to MightyROM hoping to see a big improvement, which did not really happen (no offense to anyone). The phone still was extremely slow, would lock up quite often, and just pissed me off constantly.
I'm now running Energy ROM, overclocked to 768 MHz, and using Opera Mini as my primary browser. With these three changes in place, the phone is amazing and exactly what I want. In fact, not only am I satisfied enough to not jump ship to Android as soon as SERO allows it in October, I'm pretty sure I can hold out for the next generation of smartphones (dual-core!).
Anyway, my point is that the forum can definitely help you get your phone to a point where you're not gnashing your teeth every time you look at it. Feel free to PM me if you need specific tips - I am not an expert by any means, especially compared to most people here, but I can tell you exactly how I went about it.
Link to phone unlocker (you need this prior to custom ROM flashing):
http://forum.ppcgeeks.com/cdma-tp2-u...w-hardspl.html
EnergyROM (I am running the Cookie Energy Style, but the build from late August):
http://forum.ppcgeeks.com/cdma-tp2-u...se-2018-a.html
Overclocking Thread:
http://forum.ppcgeeks.com/htc-touch-...-settings.html
YouTube video that I found very helpful for understanding the whole ROM flashing process:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=te7CPM3yeUk