Hi, Scott.
As your developer, I’d have to say—listen to the nice people who are advising you here.
They’re telling you what we’re telling you: that what you propose is not the best way to get the most out of EE. That trying to work outside of the templating system is going to be more overhead, less efficient, and harder to support and update, than using EE tag-based templates.
To use a metaphor: you get a lot more mileage out of a car if you use all four wheels than if you try just using two.
TTFN
Travis