how much power does the site admin really have?

is there any way thru the WP interface that a site admin can do things like view drafts, edit author fields and do all sorts of other site admin tasks without having to resort to using phpMyAdmin and diddle with the information behind the curtain?
i’ve been testing out a 1.3alpa from July because it seemed like upgrading from 1.2 to 1.3 later would be a mess in a blog with 40+ authors.
will a later nightly of 1.3a resolve some of these issues, or is kluding with phpMyadmin my only option right now?