A few things to point out.
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I also liked the idea of compiling certain programs using emerge
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You don't need to use Gentoo to compile certain apps for yourself. Even in Fedora this shouldn't be a problem, just use source RPMs. I've never used a RPM distro for an extended period so I'm not sure how it works, you'll need to Google that one.
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Compiling from source would also make my computer more effeint.
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Says who? Compiling from source is overrated, sure people say it results in a much faster package but can you blame them? If you just spent the last
x hours compiling KDE I bet you'd be wanting to validate that time to yourself as well lol. I came from Gentoo to Arch and if anything I felt that Arch was quicker. That's a pretty subjective opinion though so take it or leave it. Most credible benchmarks do prove that compiling for your specific system results in quicker packages however the time deficite is measure in milliseconds. If you believe you could notice the difference when X loads 0.02 seconds quicker then by all means, Gentoo is for you!
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Also according to Gentoo's web page, one doesn't have to keep reinstalling new distribution versions every few months.
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Yeah, rolling versions are awesome! However Gentoo is not the only distro that works in this way, Arch is the same via pacman -Syu, Debian/Ubuntu/assorted others are the same via apt-get dist-upgrade. I'm sure many other distros operate the same, I just covered a few majors.
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Finally, If I had access to multiple package distribution methods, I'd be able to install a larger variety of package types.
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In all distros you can build a native package for your app and it's usually not a major hassle however if you choose to use Debian or co. they have a tool called alien that converts between a large number of package formats to .deb which can then be installed.
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I really don't want my computer to go down for a few days every time I want to update the thing.
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Check up on the Gentoo forums, many people have worked out nice settings etc that lower the CPU time given to portage which allows you to use your system and compile updates in the background without a major slowdown.
There's some info for you at any rate