This actually looks like as much if not more work to set up than Ansible. As soon as you start talking about required directory hierarchies, you've lost the "just f###### do it" feel. Then I still have to write a special YAML file, and then my scripts.

The Ansible setup for my personal server started as two files: an inventory file consisting of an ip address, and site.yml. My ignorance (and some installation issues) notwithstanding, it has scaled pretty smoothly from there to copying up config files, templated nginx config, and so on. I don't see much room for anything between that and a literal "just f###### shell script".