I highly recommend a documented walkthrough rather than a scripted setup. As you note: with a scripted setup if it breaks you're left debugging it and trying to

I highly recommend a documented walkthrough rather than a scripted setup. As you note: with a scripted setup if it breaks you're left debugging it and trying to work out what on earth it has done to your machine. I think 1-2 days of setup is entirely reasonable, but it shouldn't be taking an entire week.