fwiw... i have 3gs - fw 4.1/bb 06.15 - phone was original att locked... i did the redsnow jb and the ultrasnow unlock when it came out in dec with the 06.15 workaround for unlocking so i could use phone in norway. I didn't have service in the us so was only using wifi and all seemed fine. when i swapped out the att sim for the telenor sim, drainage picked up big time. so I turned off push, cut mail fetch to 30 min and cut back on most notifications. not a huge improvement but was not as bad as some I was reading about. anyway, i redid jb with updated redsnow and then installed sam and samprefs - basically I forgot I had the original att sim with me so used SAM to activate, also to clear push sessions and it seems to have done the trick. it seems my only battery issue now is when I end up switching between 3g and wifi as I come and go during the day - I use wifi at home, the gym and the coffee shop. the more I end up on 3g, and the more I drop and regain 3g if I am traveling, the more it drains the battery.
I used push checker and it said my notification system works (which it does - I always get my msg notices and sports scores), just says my certificates are not unique... not sure if that causes any excess battery usage or not.