So my question:  Has anyone tried these bags?  What was the overall result?  Would you do it again?  Where can you get the bags (Amazon's are really expensive)?

As an old tent camper, I have to ask, "What's the problem?" You're camping in the middle of nowhere. Great. 'Cat holes' and 'grease pits' have gotten the job done for many people over many years. If you have a family with personal privacy concerns, a fancier toilet using Boy Scout methods is fairly easy to rig, at least where trees are around. Perhaps you're in a place without trees? Out east or in the north, this is not a problem. That leaves only your fresh water tank to worry about. 

I hope you enjoy your trip.

giardia, shigelia, norovirus, are just of few lovely bugs we've left behind in our poop.  This is one of the reasons the folks at the U.S. Forest Service, the BLM, and the various park services tell people to "pack it out." 

My reluctance to fill the black water tank comes from a rather awful experience I had when I owned an Ericson 38 sailboat.  The prior owner had plumbed in a holding tank that was a big neoprene bladder with compression fittings that connected the inlet and outlet hoses.  I was staying on my boat and came down with a terrible case of the flue.  There was not an orifice in my body that was not draining some horrible substance.  After using the head for the "13th" time, as I was pumping its contents into the holding tank, one of the hose fittings came off and I had a flood of black water suddenly overfill the bilge and onto the cabin floor.  While running a fever of a 104 and trying to control the effects flu, I had to clean up the mess, and repair the holding tank.  It wasn't a very fun experience.  Thus, dealing with malfunctioning black water tanks is not one of my preferred activities.

Giardia from beavers wasn't around whjen you were young? Obviously, wild animals also carry a long list of scary organisms.

"The solution to pollution is dilution"

If I am camping away from other people, am away from the edge of a stream or lake, and bury my waste, NO problems will arise before the waste degrades into harmless humus. Granted, in the arid west, the process will be slower, and the density of other campers is quite important, we're talking about real boondocking here. 

There are people who study pathogen concentrations in the places we go camping and my preference is to follow their advice.  These are good hard working folks who are trying to protect us and our environment and I appreciate and respect their work.  If they say "pack it out" then I will do it.

As for pathogens, yes, concentration is an important factor in getting an infection.  For most people with healthy immune systems, we can defend ourselves against limited contact with most pathogens.  Indeed, it may well have a beneficial effect to have that contact, kind of like doing push-ups for the immune defenses.  On the other hand, consuming pathogens, whether from beaver poop or from the guy trekking along the Appalachian trail, in sufficient concentrations may make you wish you hadn't.  The problem is, unless we've done an assay on pathogenic concentration, we don't know if there is sufficient dilution.  

So moral of the story, don't mess with mice in the forest because they can carry fleas that have bacterium Yersinia pestis.

To answer your question about the poo bags, yes we have them , and yes, they work great. I have purchased the Cleanwaste brand from REI. They aren’t cheap, but we use them sparingly. The cost is $34.00,for 12 bags. Our adult kids use them in their portable toilets, in their pop up campers, for the little ones. It’s a lot easier than running to the campground bathroom in the middle of the night, and they don’t have to mess with any chemicals. We’ve used them in the R-pod as well, especially if we’re only staying one night someplace. They are easy to use. Hope this helps.

Otherwise, I might try to convince my wife that it's really fun to drain the waste water tanks while I wait in the truck.  [Joke disclaimer:  This is only a joke.  I would not really do such a mean thing to my lovely wife.  If I tried, I'd be sleeping in our Pod with no heat {another joke}.  One does not mess with Colombianas {not a joke}.]