There was a thread a few months ago from memory where someone had put together a pretty comprehensive list of all the costs associated with going down the modular route. As you would expect the usual pprune rants started up and the poor chap was accused of over estimating (he had the bleedin receipts to prove most of his costs yet this wasn't enough for some people) and they could do it at half the price! At the end of the day people just want to see what they want to see.
I also seem to remember someone was going to knock up a spreadsheet to help "cost out" the various schools and work out the best bang for your buck. Didn't see anything more on this though.
If you do a search and can find it this might go someway to helping answer some of your thoughts/questions.