No, Content_profile will let you edit the profile pages which created with profile module. So you need to keep Profile module enabled.

They can work well together. But you can enable it if you don't use it.

Not sure how to ask this question! First, I have a site with a handful of users with the default Drupal profile or user account. I am following your book step by step so far, and am at "4.3.1 Creating a Panel Page
When we navigate to our newly configured profile, it looks alright."

At this point I went to the default account where there is a link that says create your profile. After clicking on this link I see the "Some keywords about me:" field I created using your instructions along with a few other fields I have already set up on my site. I also have the WebFM Attachments and File Upload options that were already set up on my site available on this same form too. However, there is no save button at the bottom of this form. This is also the case when I go to this form via the create new content / profile links. This is leaving me at a state where I cannot create a content profile. Using Drupal core 6.17 and all the permissions look correct. Here is a list of all modules I am currently using:

Account reminder 6.x-1.2
Advanced Forum 6.x-1.1
Advertisement 6.x-2.2
AHAH helper 6.x-2.x-dev (2010-Feb-16)
Audio 6.x-1.0-unstable6
Audio getID3
Audio Form Override 6.x-1.x
Author Pane 6.x-1.1
Automatic Nodetitles 6.x-1.2
Better Formats 6.x-1.2
CAPTCHA 6.x-2.2
CCK Blocks 6.x-1.3
Content Construction Kit (CCK) 6.x-2.6
Content Profile 6.x-1.0
Date 6.x-2.4
DHTML Menu 6.x-3.5
Email Field 6.x-1.2
Embed Google Maps Field 6.x-1.2
Event 6.x-2.x-dev (2009-Aug-28)
Facebook-style Links 6.x-2.x-dev (2010-May-02)
Facebook-style Statuses (Microblog) 6.x-2.x-dev (2010-May-02)
Facebook-style Statuses Comments 6.x-1.x-dev (2010-Apr-20)
FileField 6.x-3.7
Fivestar 6.x-1.19
Formfilter 6.x-1.x-dev (2009-Sep-10)
getID3() 6.x-1.3
Global Redirect 6.x-1.2
Image Resize Filter 6.x-1.9
ImageAPI 6.x-1.8
ImageCache 6.x-2.0-beta10
ImageCache Profiles 6.x-1.3
ImageField 6.x-3.3
Inactive User 6.x-1.0-beta2
Insert 6.x-1.0-beta4
jQ 6.x-1.2
jQuery Media 6.x-1.3
jQuery UI 6.x-1.3
Link to Us 6.x-1.1
lm_paypal 6.x-1.0
Mime Mail 6.x-1.0-alpha2
MultiBlock 6.x-1.3
Pathauto 6.x-1.4
Privatemsg 6.x-2.x-dev (2010-Jan-20)
Profile role 6.x-1.3
Register with Picture 6.x-1.7
Rules 6.x-1.2
SEO Checklist 6.x-3.0
Service links 6.x-1.0
Signup 6.x-1.0-rc6
Site verification 6.x-1.0-rc1
Statistics Advanced Settings 6.x-1.5
Tagadelic 6.x-1.2
Thickbox 6.x-1.6
Token 6.x-1.x-dev (2009-Apr-20)
Track 'n' Stack 6.x-1.1
Transliteration 6.x-3.0
Twitter 6.x-2.6
User registration notification 6.x-1.11
User Relationships 6.x-1.0-rc4
Views 6.x-2.10
Views Bonus Pack 6.x-1.0
Voting API 6.x-2.3
Web File Manager 6.x-2.12
Wysiwyg 6.x-2.1
XML sitemap 6.x-1.2

Any help proceeding forward would be great!
Eric