My basic problem is that none of my kit, apart from the TV, faces the seating area making IR reception unreliable. Some components have a very wide angle IR receptor, some are moderately wide and my VCR has a very narrow acceptance angle (thankfully I don't use it very often, because I have to get up and walk over to face the unit before I use the remote).

This means that using even one repeating flood emitter will result in some components receiving a signal from both the remote itself and the repeater (perhaps with a time delay that might cause a double action for, say, volume increase or channel increment?). The layout of my room also makes it very likely that the receiver that drives any flood emitter will see the output of these floods and the warning about feedback therefore seems highly plausible.

Both these potential issues (i.e. double signals and feedback) seem equally relevant even if I used an RF solution.