Comparing Columns that can contain NULLS - is there a more elegant way?

You can use this approach from Paul White's article Undocumented Query Plans: Equality Comparisons

SELECT * 
FROM   A 
       INNER JOIN B 
         ON A.ID = B.ID 
            AND EXISTS(SELECT A.* 
                       EXCEPT 
                       SELECT B.*) 

Standard SQL, supported in SQL Server 2005 and better:

WITH A_MINUS_B 
     AS
     (
      SELECT * 
        FROM A
      EXCEPT 
      SELECT *
        FROM B
     )
SELECT * 
  FROM A_MINUS_B AS T 
       JOIN B ON T.ID = B.ID;