As a note, I once downloaded a program which had just released a new version that used openjade for HTML validation. It didn't work. Why? Because the author had built openjade using MacPorts and bundled it that way. It worked fine on his system, but on anybody else's system it was looking for libraries in /opt/local/lib that simply weren't there. Beware distribution of MacPorts-built binaries.
No offense, but you're barking up the wrong tree with that analysis. The problem wasn't that the author had built openjade using MacPorts, the problem was that he didn't instruct you to install the dependent libraries as well or simply bundle them with his software too. That's one of the reasons that the MacPorts community always gets so hung up on package management - they want to distribute packages, but they also want to ensure that any system which installs those packages also follows dependencies, deals with upgrades and otherwise handles all the messy details of making that software work exactly the way it did on the package author's system.
Someday, one hopes, MacPorts will finally reach parity with its FreeBSD/Gentoo/Red Hat cousins and offer such a collection, after which problems like the ones you're describing will go away and be replaced by an entirely new and different set of problems which, at least, will be interesting and relevant to a wider audience. :-)
- Jordan