I have a photobucket account and a flickr account. I created the flickr account when photobucket went haywire two years ago and I couldnt post any photos - nobody could for 2 days and that was the final straw, I still find it difficult to post photos from, I would say photobucket is not apple/mac friendly.
I did pay to go pro with flickr as I easily went over the upload limit each month but I found them easy to use, the downloadable "uploader" tool is quick and simple to use and editing the photos through their picknic site is easy too. I know photobucket do often put up messages with other peoples photos regarding exceeding limits and requesting people go pro with them but I dont find them as reliable as flickr. Flickr did change their posting methods as you are supposed to link back to their site and people were not doing this, its in the terms of use.
I wonder if the last section you went to was a page for going pro and you accidently went through to this part instead of being welcomed to the standard free account.