This has raised a query. It seems the main points of divergence in Gentoo from other Distros are obtuse rules to install/maintain and a tendency to "break" on updates in ways needing research to fix.
From those 2 points I ask 2 questions.
Is there any automation of the install/maintain operations that "just plain works" ?
is there any method of directing an update to"roll back" to the last stable pre-update state if an update breaks?