Well actually lots of people have said that didn't work for them, pennies came off. The tensioner tool I used worked perfectly. The time was taken up by re-checking my work to make sure I'd routed the belt correctly and that it was lined up on the idler pulley, and of course reaching down to get it in place.

It was the first time I've done this so it took me longer than it will in the future, and removing the coolant bottle took 5 seconds and gave me a lot more arm room. If you have even smaller arms, good for you!

I don't think you can get much "more simple" than this.