I wish I could get specific information on exactly what is being hindered by running PhpSuexec. I find comments about this only on vBulletin sites.
I have turned safe mode off because I am the only user on the server, but I didn't see any change there either. Stylesheets are now stored as files, but that could be done with PhpSuesec anyway with the files written under the username.
I have been running vBaGallery since its release with the data directory at chmod 755 and the photo files at chmod 644.
EDITS:
upload.php
Code:
Content visible to verified customers only.
functions_gallery_imageedit.php
Code:
Content visible to verified customers only.
chown myusername:myusername gallery
chown myusername:myusername files
This is also true of every other file and sub-directory including the .php files.