I followed the instructions for a database-only upgrade of the ZC 1.5.4 install, plus the additional steps to convert the database from latin-1 to utf8. I think I built the customer-facing part of the new site entirely by hand, editing the new language.whatever files to contain text from the old site and configuring other things through the Admin interface.

I might try one or two of those ideas on my own time as a service to the project but the plugin is not worth more time to the client.