Necessary Manual Changes to Blogger Template

I'm trying to be a minimalist if possible. Therefore when writing blogs, I'm using the new template instead of the classic one. I manipulates the page elements instead of directly change the html code, resisting temptations of adding cool features which requires modifications of template by hand. However there are still some nice stuff mandating such modifications. I will list them below in case I change my template in the future (I'm pretty satisfied with my current template, Stretch Denim Light, though). Since I'm really annoyed by these "hacks", in the list below I also discuss the possibility to eliminate them in the future.

• Google Analytics code
  • Usage: analyze the visitors to your blog via web browsing.
  • How to change: just add the html code provided by Google immediately before the end body tag.
  • Possibility to remove this hack: possible. Once I have tried to implement this in the page element "HTML/Javascript", but Google Analytics failed to collect data since then although the status is still OK ("Receiving Data"). After I switched back, everything went fine.
• Google Webmaster Tools verification tag
  • Usage: to prove to Google that you are the owner of your blog therefore Google can provide statistics data from its crawler for your blog. Even after successful verification, you still need this tag since the verification is done continuously.
  • How to change: just add the metatag provided by Google immediately after start tag head.
  • Possibility to remove this hack: seems difficult since the verification tag is always required.
• Yahoo Site Explorer verification tag
  • Usage: the purpose is same as Google Webmaster Tools above.
  • How to change: just add the metatag provided by Yahoo immediately after start tag head. It seems that the tag provided by Yahoo is considered "not well-formed" by Blogger, therefore you need to add "/" before the end ">". Whether you place Google or Yahoo verification tag first is simply a judgment call.
  • Possibility to remove this hack: similar as Google.
• Ad Sense between Posts
  • Usage: Google has issues on integrating Blogger and Ad Sense for some users (including me), therefore manual change to template is needed to display ads between posts.
  • How to change: just follow this tip. Refine the code and put it before "post-footer-line".
  • Possibility to remove this hack: hope Google can fix the issue soon.
• Align header text and image
  • Usage: center the title, description and header image.
  • How to change: just follow this tip.
  • Possibility to remove this hack: if Blogger can support configuration of page header.
• Add CSS for Code
  • Usage: provide uniform style sheet for code.
  • How to change: add the style sheet for div in the header.
  • Possibility to remove this hack: unlikely. Such customization should not be present in common template.
• Display Permalink
  • Usage: In the footer of each post, Blogger shows the timestamp, which actually points to the permalink. This is rather confusing.
  • How to change: Based on this permalink tip. Check "Expand Widget Template", search through the template, between the end tag of "data:post.timestamp" and end tag of "abbr", insert " | Permalink". The operation is shown in figure below.
  • Possibility to remove this hack: yes. Maybe Blogger will improve the template?
• Flash Tag Cloud
• AddThis button
• Use internal CSS