OpenCore is not that hard to understand as you may think: if you understand how Clover works (more or less) and where you put kexts, etc. it's even simpler.
The only itch is that you don't use the same tools, but if you follow Dortania's guide, it's really straight forward.
You mention "fake SMC et cetera, and the Intel ethernet drivers": you use the same kexts with OC except that they go in /EFI/OC/Kexts instead of /EFI/CLOVER/kexts/Other.
Note that even with Clover, VirtualSMC is better than FakeSMC — I've used FakeSMC for years, only to discover that it was the cause of the lag when putting to sleep or shutting down the computer... Even old builds like my Z68 benefit switching to OC.
You could try it first with your current computer.