I was under the impression that the initial download for iOS 5 would be a traditional iTunes download of the full OS, and the updates following 5.0.0 would be OTA delta updates.
1. I plan on having the day off (as I have done with every major release since 3.0) and just waiting for the update to download. I plan to start fresh and do a fresh install since I haven't done one since 4.0 was released over a year ago.
2. Then learn and master all the new features.
This year I have two devices to install 5.0 on (my iphone and ipad) so it'll be a much longer day to enjoy .
It's like a holiday for me very year. I look forward to them no differently.
Syncing is nothing to do with updating the firmware (upgrading to iOS 5 or even to point updates within iOS 5). Firmware updates can require reboots. Syncing (your songs etc from iTunes) happens in the background: you can still use the device.