Geez Ed, thems fightin' words. ("woefully ignorant" etc.)

I don't think the issue is how difficult registering a component is, which you explained in much detail. I think the problem is the lack of documentation on the how and why of registering/installation utils.

If you understand the mundane details about versions and dependancies, the wizards are a great time-saver. The problem with not understanding the wizards is that what they do is essentially magic. I doubt any programmer who spends hours writing their app wants to trust the installation to wizardly magic. In the re-use and recycle "Rapid Application Development" world, the first cut is usually the documentation. (few developers write really useful docs anyway, because they're too intimate with the details for someone who's never seen the app) This can lead to some frustration when the wizard doesn't do the job exactly like the developer hoped, and there's no resource to figure out what needs to be done to fix it. (and who believes that wizards are infallable?)

I think if you step back and looked at a bigger picture, you'd agree that the reason for the numerous 'helpful' programs you mentioned is because the process is actually complicated and time-consuming. (nothing related to computers has ever been the way old-school management thinks of them- "You just push a button, and 'it' does all the work", at the same time they're afraid to learn how to push the button)