I believe the lack of infrastructure mode is a limitation of the wifi chipset in the Droid 1. That is also the reason why the Droid 1 lacks a Wireless Hotspot app from VZW. Remember when they announced that the D1 wouldn't get this because the hardware doesn't support it? This is what they were referring to.
I know it is not as glamorous, but I use the wired tether app on my Droid with my CR-48, no problem. LAN over usb works just fine!
Yup, this is what I do. I'm on the original droid and my setup up is fairly complex but it works. I'm using it now.
Droid-->USB-->Ubantu Netbook-->Cisco wrieless router---> all my other Internet devices.
I get about 1.78 megabits on average.