I am with you in preferring forums. There is something about putting your entire thoughts down in writing and not being tied to the screen waiting for a reply.... I can just check back later. I also agree that having "support requests" be made available 24/7 to the whole community can be helpful in people learning and sharing with each other.
The chat (cbox) would allow our community to have the ability to chat in real-time during times that we can pre-arrange. I'm going to be having "office hours" opening up soon where I'll be "working on things" and have the chat room open on a screen and that would allow people to interact in real time.