Last I checked, this hasn't changed:

A metabase database-only backup that is made through the Internet
Information Services (IIS) Microsoft Management Console (MMC) snap-in or
through MetaEdit.exe is not helpful if the rest of the server is lost
because the metabase depends on certain encryption keys that are backed up
with the system state.

The most reliable backup of the metabase that you can make is through the
System State option found in Ntbackup.exe, which is a Windows 2000 backup
utility. Neither the Ntbackup.exe online Help nor the graphical user
interface (GUI) indicate that the metabase is included in the System State
backup option.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/269586/EN-US/

As long as your data is safe, and you're comfortable in recovering data
using tools like ESEUTIL and ISINTEG than your basically ok.
A full server restore is not really an issue, it's pretty straight forward
but very time consuming.
Make sure you know your configuration and you can setup a new server, use
the original server name, setup Exchange with the /disasterrecovery switch,
patch your server with the appropriate hotfixes and service packs and you
should be up-and-running.
Try this in a test environment, you'll see it works.

If you have a system state backup (which includes the metabase) this makes
it much easier, but still you have to rebuild your server.

A full backup is ofcourse the easiest way to recover. Personally I like the
Backup Exec Intelligent Disaster Recovery option very much, safes a lot of
time.

Test this, document this, train this. On a regular basis. One day you'll be
happy you did, believe me :-)

Cheers,
Jaap

  Thank you very much for the Replies to my question.  I already do a
nightly System State backup along with a full backup of the Stores on my
server.  That tells me that I "should be fine" in the event I need to do any
kind of restore of the system.  Of course, that's easy to say.
  Again, thank you for the info and I will incorporate it into my DR Plan
for Exchange.

      Jon