Help with DSL/DSi and flash carts

First post here :thumbup:

So...I recently bought a DSi (kind of an impulse buy) and then wanted a flash cart for it so got an R4i card from a friend. It wasn't until a few days after that I found out that the current R4 cards are clones and are crap...
Oh yeh, R4i card no longer works on my 1.4 DSi after I updated the R4i firmware from the r4ultra.com site (one printed on back on R4i). Said it would have to reflash the R4i chip and now it doesn't work.

Anyway...I also wanted to play downloaded GBA games on the DSi and I just assumed there would be an emulator for it. I now know that this can only be done with the iPlayer...but someone told me that the Golden Sun games (one of the main reason I want a GBA player) have issues playing on the DSi and iPlayer.

Now for the question...
For the DSi, which flash cart would you recommend? I've read that the Acekard 2i and the Supercard DSonei are supposed to be good.
However, would anybody think that it would just be simpler for me to buy a DS Lite so that I don't have to deal with DSi firmware updates and GBA emulation?
Would there be any advantages to me having the DSi? I don't really use the extra functions of the DSi...

Thanks

EDIT: If I had a DS Lite, would I be able to play GBA games from the flash cart? Or would I have to buy something else?