I cant help with the specific issues except to say that I've had the same templates now for 5 years because they are so difficult to modify.  Having said that, they are indeed useful.  Some tips (beware, some of these might be not OOTB):

1.  Make some sections compulsory

2. Provide help text underneath each section

3. Pre-populate various sections to provide guidance e.g. the short-description filled 'HR <insert country> - How to <insert process>'

4. Make sure the author can preview it properly as it will look on portal with the correct CSS

5. Enable the Tiny MCE toolbar buttons you need and get rid of the rest

6. Work out how your author will know there's a feedback task (will they get an email? will you show the feedback on portal?)

7. Version control may mess with your dashboards/reports so you may need to add filters