it's a point well taken, and I agree. When I teach Solaris Admin (I am a Certified Sun Instructor), I teach them command line stuff even though the same things could possibly be done through a GUI.
However, I posted what I did because after 14 some odd years of Unix work, I like the path of least resistance. I also posted what I did simply because of this simple fact: even though editing by hand fosters the learning process, if one is not familiar with vi or any of the other editing tools then they are hosed anyway.
What I personally would recommend would be for the individual to use both methods (editing files then using a script) just to see not only the differences between the two methods but also how both methods accomplish the same task.
But first, I would have done what my former supervisor used to do to me any time I had a question: "Read the man page."