I see the point,
however if you are not more than familiar with the software and its limits do not understimate the risk to obtain some "strange" results,
the advantage of simplified procedures (for example with columns it could be a binary or multicomponent short cut method) is that in many cases they allow to validate the values calculated with rigorous procedures (which are complex and require additional parameters not easy to manage).
I have a different software (PRODE) which I utilize mainly from Excel so I like the idea to use (where possible) a formula instead of a coded procedure (which is available),
Paolo