dont forget that we all have 'engineer' licenses, and the experience and knowledge we have is what makes us able to make the decision if that airplane is 'good to go',
what did they do when a maintenance manual didn't give specific procedures on removal installation such as some old aerocommander books i have seen floating around, the fuel system info was a schematic, there was no description or removal installation sections, and the ipc wasn't much better, hell it wasn't even organized in ATA 100 format
what did engineers do when the 'approved data' was their license
please remember that in your 'research' our license (and responsibilities) has changed dramatically in the last few years,
take into account all the legal ramifications, the human factors BS, and not to mention the safety management systems i feel it now takes me way too long to take a dump iaw mm and company procedures