as the only hack is to solder, what advantages and disadvantages does this have to a regular firmware flash, i have a lite on drive and considering whether its worth getting it done

Well, disadvantages are obvious, you have to solder directly onto the board of the drive and if you lack the skills you could be in for some trouble. You also have to buy extra hardware to connect the drive to your PC.
Advantages, you will get better at soldering and more intimate with your lite-on drive.

Compare it to the benq's that came out last year. You connected them to the PC and flashed. It took less than 5 minutes and was nearly impossible to screw up, except in the case of carelessness, which has occurred all too often.
There have been rumors of a solder-free method coming soon, but they are nothing more than rumors at this point. I would wait if you don't feel comfortable doing it.

Once you have the drive key and spoof data from the liteon drive you are left with a normal flash for the replacement drive.

So I would say the advantages are you get to play backups. The disadvantage is that it costs you more money to buy the tool and replacement drive that you will need.

thanks for your replies, i guess i wanted to know is it more prone to being detected, or for it too fail? or is it basically the same as a different drive will be in it, using ixtreme fw so practically the same risk is involved?

The risk is the same as it would be for to mod any drive.