Hi nwrightau,
The above example you provided is a very nice hand-holding validation method.
I'm wondering why you would need to disable validation on all fields in order to use it ?
We use the jQuery Validate plugin, which you can extend with an independant jquery plugin or just jquery code in the registration page header for the validation of the password field in the way you would like it to be. Core Joomla password validation doesn't work that way either, so it's really custom jQuery javascript code that is needed there, imho.
To add custom jQuery code to that registration page without need for core edits, here is a short how-to:
1) create a Joomla menu for the CB Registration page (CB - Register in Joomla menus manager)
2) install CB Content module and create a module displaying only on that page. It has a field for adding jQuery javascript code to the page header at the right place.
3) into that field, write your jquery validate javascript code for that field
4) disable CB validation on password as you have your custom one, but leave validation on all other fields.
The above method is valid for both CB 1.9.1 and 2.0, but the jquery code might need very minor adaptations (probably 1-2 lines to adapt the binding to CB validation plugin instead of the jquery one, but even that might not be needed).
We do not recommend nor support modified CB versions, as modifying core CB has turned out many times to be a very time-consuming experience for users and for us too, without benefits to the community. Specially that 99.99% of the time, sadly, users don't contribute back their improvements. While looking as a great way to win time upfront, it is very hard to maintain as new versions of Joomla and of CB are released. That's why we have a very stable API that can be used to extend CB, and we have always replied positively to request for additional events/hooks to be added to CB to improve its extensibility through CB plugins or modules. In your use-case, it's not needed since the method above allows you to change the password validation methode without any core hacks.
I hope that is helpful to you. I'm sorry that I don't have time to code your jQuery code for you at this time, and sorry that you didn't like Kyle's reply. I hope that the background in this reply will allow to read it again in a different light