But to suggest however, especially to someone non-technical, "oh, just reinstall Windows" in the event of an issue is just plain masochistic.
Rubbish.
The desktop should always be treated as disposable.
If you look at how things are run in corporate IT, you save your important data to the network servers .... if something happens you don't waste more than a limited amount of time trying to diagnose the issue. If you can't solve it, its wipe clean and start fresh. Wasting time on desktop issues is the most pointless thing known to man kind.
System images are also more hassle then they're worth, they can cause more problems than they solve. The operating system and software being living beasts, the ability to get an inconsistent and troublesome system image is all to easy.
When manufacturers create system images, they do so in controlled environments and with a very strict routine to ensure the image restores correctly.
You simply cannot create an adequate system image of a system full of crud that's been used for the last few years. You're kidding yourself. You think it looks ok, but realistically you're just masking the problems.