Here is the problem, most Affiliate, hacker, black haters, web developers are already paranoid with people tracking them, so if create a SaaS with this, the adoption level is going to be pretty low. Imagine, having all your affiliate logins, passwords, stats all in one location, on SOMEONE ELSE's server? Not likely going to happen.
Imagine a guy doing serious numbers in a niche, and wanting to use this server, but not wanting to give away his exposure, even if only the trusted administrators are the only ones that can see shit. That's never going to work, and it will completely kill the opportunity. What I was thinking though, was have the open source version still available, but also have a hosted version, that people can sign up for if they don't want the headaches of hosting it themselves, similar to Wordpress.
Also, all OFFICIAL customization is going to go through a reliable web development team which I will get a kick back, but anyone will be able to develop for the system. - eliminating my problem of peasants trying to contact me directly about their particular configurations. As a web developer, I'm already not cheap, so trust me, I've been down similar roads before.
If I release it as a simple SaaS service, it'll be like the other dozen UN-reliable and UN-customizable dashboard already available. All plugins and shit would have to be 100% supported, and then I'll really be dealing with morons, plus trying to help the affiliate community falls by the wayside to making money. I plan on making money indirectly once I get the project's exposure and adoption rate through the roof, which I get with open source. Yeah, I know Saas, I'll be making money, but I'll really don't want to deal with your bullshit. I'll making the platform, plugins, and send it out into the open source world. People will modify it, making it better, etc.