I used Dreamhost once, after I ended my hosting to move to a VPS, they locked me out of my administration panel completely. I still had my domain with them, but no access to it, and the website actually told me that I needed to open a hosting plan to get access. I had to go through their support process to get access (or really, to transfer out, there was no way I was staying after that).
I immediately transferred to Moniker - they're great, they let you configure absolutely everything. I think what I learned was to stay away from companies that do both domains and hosting. If they just do domains, they understand that you are always going to be sending your traffic elsewhere.
Great point, thanks. I have a hosting account there because I don't want to manage a VPS for my (static) blog and the other low traffic site I host. I didn't even realize you can't only use them for domains, that's a huge gotcha.
I use Dreamhost for all my domain registrations and most DNS. Great admin interface compared to the competition, still very cheap, domain transfer codes plainly visible, no unlocking or calling or any of that. You just transfer it away. They are the most honest of the bunch and you can move each part of your service off them as you outgrow it.
Easiest to setup a domain for Google Apps too, just click a button.