Hey Straight Arrow great questions and yes, magnificent game, especially if played historically or historically with some twists. I continue to be impressed with the potential for historical play with this game.
When I am not playing pbem I play all factions against myself. I also do this as I am learning any new game. One great advantage for someone who prefers historical lines of play is that I will not have a player who has mastered alternative, and better, strategies and tactics – a continuing frustration for me in playing American Civil War games. So if you can imagine, I have Solitary games running of WON and PON. My PON game has been running since its release, so long time. And I wish now I knew what I know know, then. That is, when I began. Also, if you can count time, you know I could have finished at least two complete PON game playing a turn a week by now, but I have not.
So I would say, first of all and most importantly, time is not a factor. If it takes you a month to play a single week of game time, so what! But if you have time, I typically play all seven nations of WON in about one and a half hours when not much is happening and three hours when several nations have complicated moves.
I am a spontaneous player, not a planned and crafted player, so even if I forget what my plan was for the Ottomans last turn, it does not matter. I am only looking for their best play this turn. Because this did not work for me in my PON game, I developed a simple Exel chart with goals, objectives and reminders. I would review prior to playing a nation. Because I often wanted to play all eight or seven nations at the same sitting, can't remember off the top of my head if 7 or 8, I put the Excel sheet on email so I could read it on my iPad without exiting my game computer. This allowed me to quickly make changes and record, but also not worry too much about precision but consistency.
I do not think you can, nor want to, minimize logistics and unit handling as this is the heart of the 'fun.' But you want to remember your logistics plans and unit builds, so the chart.
I think your reading list is exceptional and I am borrowing the one text new to me. For me, the best online resource for keeping an orientation to the time line and shifting alliances and such is:
https://www.britannica.com/event/Napoleonic-Wars