I implemented a very similar solution a while back and find it works well. I also have a SSRS front end to view my data. The monitoring solution also grabs data from all databases, last backup date/time etc. It also keeps an inventory with version numbers, collation etc etc.

I have also managed to get disk usage too, though the process is a little dirty.

I did it because I want complete control of what I monitor/report and I too didn't trust SQL Server Mail, though db mail is much beter these days.