1. A computer hacker is someone who tries to break into computer systems, especially in order to get secret information.
2. A computer hacker is someone who uses a computer a lot, especially so much that they have no time to do anything else. :D
(The smiley was on me though)

Doing math with made-up numbers is fun and all, but it doesn't really provide much...

If your experience is that an unattended install takes longer than 30 minutes, then you're doing something wrong. I do this as a part of my job, and a higly specialized unattended install based on Mandriva 2008.0 takes between 15-20 minutes, and that includes a whole bunch of in-house configuration and applications.
Getting down to ~10 minutes would be no problem if I just got rid of all that extra stuff - depending on hardware of course.
Within those ten minutes a linux install would include all the productivity tools that a normal user would need.

Your argument that unattended install is more expensive is flawed... My anecdote doesn't prove the opposite but at least it gives a pointer in the other direction.

I think you traverse the wrong corners of internet, cause my impression is that most people are very helpful, especially to newbies. I've written lots of question on a number of different forums on the net and have never been brushed off.

OTOH, if you try to ask a question to a mailing list, you really need to take some time to understand the tone of the conversation there before posting anything. Try asking how to setup your webcam on the linux kernel mailing list....

BTW; HowtoForge-linux is the place to go...