Yes, you're agreeing. :) I too strongly implied that you had to be trying to create a better wheel when you reinvent one; that doesn't have to be the case, as long as you're aware of your own wheel's inadequacies. (Yes, I've written a templating system too - in fact, that's what my very first post here was about - and I've written a hand rolled CGI param parser too: great learning experiences whose results have long gone to the bitbucket.)

Makeshifts last the longest.