I think you're underestimating how long it takes to set up workflows, tools, device drivers, system configurations, path variables, and so forth from scratch. If you rely solely on project repositories, I reckon you could spend multiple man-days getting your machine back to a pre-dataloss state.
I just had a laptop stolen. Even with Time Machine backups, you still spend many hours setting configs after a restore.
I just had a laptop stolen. Even with Time Machine backups, you still spend many hours setting configs after a restore.