The way things are setup works just fine. I also know some of these cards take up more space than my screen\HA will allow. I am just looking for proof of concept for one. Would the last one from 16 hours ago work by Liam for messing around with and testing or is the code still not optimal in your view?
The code in the op works fine but as per recommendations the code from 16 hours should be the best solution so far so give that 1 a go 
Different people have different preferences.
Some different solutions are difficult to compare.
But some approaches which were posted here are not optimal. I already explained it here:
Consider a stack with inner stacks/cards (some of them could be graphs). Assume you want to compose some inner element (like a label) dynamically. Then you decide to nest the whole stack into config-template-card (CTC). Then ALL cards will be inside CTC. Since these cards have entities - you will have to declare ALL these entities as “monitored” by CTC. And the graph card will redraw itself on every entity’s change - which will cause flickering. Same about a gauge card inside CTC (if someone decides place it).
A possible correct way - place ONLY the card with dynamic element inside CTC. Or do not use CTC - use other cards supporting templates like a markdown.
That was a most important observation.
Other things - like “card-mod”, “use or not layout-card” - are a matter of personal taste / choice / educational goals.
Call me a HA enthuaist or hobbyist. I am not familiar with scripting in YAML. So for me whatever is easiest and works. But thanks for explanation. Will probably reread this thread a few times some more.
There were plenty of similar cases with a floorplan.
This is a picture-elements card with plenty of sub-elements.
And people placed the whole picture-elements card inside CTC and then complained smth like “floorplan constantly flickers”, “a webpage freezes” etc.
Does this card still work? I’m having trouble getting it working.