LMAO... trust me, a decade's not nearly as long as you think, at least not as far as car stereo tech is concerned. I keep up on the tech, I simply haven't used the newer models first hand, so I'm not comfortable giving specific recommendations. Believe me, everything I said applies to today's car stereos, just as much as it did a decade ago. That much hasn't changed.
I suppose I could have mentioned the options for other different car stereo input methods introduced over the last decade that came and went quicker than 8-Tracks & Betamax (look those up for a good laugh, they were practically before my time), like SD cards of various sizes, memory sticks, DVD players (without video but which could hold almost 5GB of music on one disc), etc. All of which became obsolete when iPods, Mp3 players, iPhones, and Androids with 8+ GB of storage took over the portable music collection scene. Other than those, the biggest difference in the last decade is that more inputs & outputs are becoming standard, and that some car stereos can control iPhones from the head unit now. Pretty much all other significant changes have to do with higher end features on expensive units.
I didn't say that Walmart car audio was necessarily bad, I just said to shop around because there's a wide variety of brands and models, and a wide variety of prices for them. You could have mentioned any store, and I still would have suggested you shop around. However I would stay away from brands like BOSS, Power Acoustik, XO Vision, and Dual which Walmart carried last time I was looking for a deck. That advice is based purely off of reviews I've seen for pretty much every product I looked up from any of those brands.
I definitely wouldn't recommend using home/computer speakers hooked up to a car stereo. They can be wired up to work, but it kills the life of the speakers due to differences in ohms, impedance, etc. Also sounds like crap due to the same reasons. However, hooked directly into your mp3 device of choice, that wouldn't be an issue. But I agree, it would be a visual mess, and volume control a big hassle.
Lastly, WOW! I haven't seen one of those tape adapters since my first car stereo when I was 17! That's how I connected that discman to my cassette deck (both also stolen). They're much older tech than the radio tuners, but also much more reliable, at least until they reach the point where the deck keeps trying to flip the sides over and over and over endlessly, leaving you tuneless. The good thing is, you can get them dirt cheap, they work great while they still do, and that problem usually doesn't start until after a year or so of use.
