And if you find the phone awkward to use one handed I read a handy tip somewhere but it only works if you have a case on:
Feed a piece of elastic through the pen slot and the camera slot in the case and stick together on the inside. Then you can put your fingers through it and move your thumb wherever without dropping it.

I've installed CyanogenMod anyway. I've never used the pen / stylus so I guess I won't miss the features, and the ROMs you mentioned don't seem to be available for the Note 1, and I trust CyanogenMod not to brick my phone (or rather I trust myself not to brick my phone with CM) as I've installed it on my Nook and old HTC phone with no problems.

Still, would be interested in other ROMs, especially since the last "stable" CM is Android 4.2.

You haven't even tried the pen? :O I don't use it a great deal. It's handy for the occasional note, screenshots with annotations and navigating menus on some websites. And websites that show animated previews by hovering over a link.

Hopefully CM will be more reliable on the N7000. I have a rather old version still running on my HTC Desire and it's great. My Note 2 is definitely more stable since switching back to a TouchWiz ROM though.