No, if a friend was offering advice, the first thing he'd say is "you should swap in a V-8", just like everyone else... ;)
Seriously, I agree with every thing you said, ESP47. My advice for a newbie is start small, learn the basics by tuning what you have to make it run the best it can, THEN move on to major modifications. Otherwise, you'll likely be VERY disappointed with the results and give up on slants like so many folks have, most because they never learned what slants like.
From experience Duster fan, I'll tell you that dropping in a V-8 is the easiest (and perhaps cheapest?) way to more power, but slants are WAY more fun to play with, and they're DIFFERENT. But there's a learning curve. It's not about just bolting parts on an engine.