Ask HN: Are Client side JavaScript loaders really worth the hassle?

I've gone from using multiple script tags, to basic uglification, to AMD/Require.JS to Browserify+Grunt. I can definitely some advantages as you explicitly import things, however, every time I find a new library, I have to ponder what things I'm going to have to do in order to get it to actually work with this rather heavyweight system. I mean, if I could get it down to simply being a CoffeeScript watch with some sort of minification process (plus support for Bower packages, of course), it might make my life a whole lot simpler. Currently I'm using AngularJS, d3, CoffeScript and a bunch of other libraries (e.g. Bootstrap/Angularstrap).

What is your ideal JavaScript/CoffeeScript workflow?

How do you get bower packages working?

How easy is it to integrate other packages that aren't made properly (or broken bower packages that browserify+debowerify cannot find)?

What advantages does browserify actually give you?

How do you change things between debug and production?