I did not say nor imply a DC could, nor do I think Buster did. He is new, and does not know what SketchUp, or DCs or LayOut can and cannot do.
Ie, I suspect your comment is with respect to the thread being opened within the Dynamic Components category, but the original request does not fit the category, nor mention DCs in any way.
(For this reason I am moving it to the Pro category temporarily. It may need to be moved later to the Developers category, if it continues to discuss the development of the OP’s automation needs.)
To be more specific,… SketchUp does not have native excel worksheet embedding, but LayOut 2017+ does. (And the link can be sync’d just as other external references can.)
SketchUp does not have a native worksheet embedding, so this fact, and that the treatment of multiple viewports (he calls “sections”,) is a paper space workflow, and best suited for LayOut. Add to this that his workflow is a professional one, requiring a Pro license, so he might as well leverage LayOut since it’ll be installed and there for the using.
Try doing a forum search on printing from SketchUp, and see how easy it is … not.
Yes you might be able to work in parallel projection from a top view and only use 2D, but none of the automation that he wants to do are native core features anyway. So he’ll need programming whether or not he uses a SketchUp only workflow, or one that includes both.
So the need for an extension, does not really dictate whether LayOut is used or not. He is going to need to have programming done regardless.
The determining factor, in my opinion, is the native integration of Excel worksheets into LayOut 2017+ as linked tables, native viewports looking into other model files and the ease of printing sheets, (as it is a paper space application.)
I think, it is a matter of giving the advice for the workflow matching the way that SketchUp and LayOut were designed.
Why go out of your way to “hack” out some alternative workflow that is harder and more difficult ?