I think you are also missing another important point: empirical evidance.

Documentation packages, due to being something optional that you would likely only have the resources to dedicate to on very-large-scale projects, have not been shown to be a cost-effective strategy to documentation. Currently, the lack of empiricism in combination with proselytization is alarming.

Moreover, there is empirical evidance to suggest documentation can get out of hand, such as all previous attempts by the US Gov’t to integrate its information systems (e.g. FAA 5 billion dollar IBM disasters; the only taxpayers rejoicing are IBM shareholders). This is the EXACT point made by CORBA guru Roger Sessions in Simple Architectures for Complex Enterprises; don’t put yourself in a position to need a “documentation package”.

— John “Z-Bo” Zabroski