Ok here goes for the stuff you've overlooked:
If you know that you want the header and footer inserted into every document and combined with bodytext, then all you have to do is define index_html in the site root like this:
<!--#var pageHeader--> <!--#var Bodytext--> <!--#var pageFooter-->
and just insert a Bodytext method or document into the various folders, with overriding pageHeaders and pageFooters where appropriate. You only need to place index_html into a folder when your template changes.
After this point you start to explain how frontier does this too, and how it's a pity that Zope doesn't do this, so I'll just skip that.
Hopefully, I got it right ... you are talking about treating a folder as a document, right? I thought of that too. While it works, it's not natural, at least to me. If you are talking about something else, please let me know. I really want to find it out -- after all, it's the whole point why I am here.
The point is, DTML documents and methods can be used to both hold content and act as templates, it's up to you to decide how you want to factor your sites functionality, layout, and content into the Zope object heirarchy.
(The following opinion is based on my understanding of your explanation, if I were wrong, you can ignore it) My point is, the way how Frontier "FORCE" the template concept to the user is easier to learn for beginner. But keep in mind that I am not against Zope at all. I have been using it for just a few days, and I already love it. The web interface of it is, IMHO, 1 internet years ahead of Frontier!! Remote management of Frontier is next to non-existent. There's a lot more, however, trying to compare these two products is not a very productive thing to do. They can work with each other very nicely. Kam