I used to enjoy making 3d spaceships in Blender3d and such. Simple extrusion and resizing of faces is the path of least resistance but it doesn't lead to very nice results.
The mesh should follow the shape you wish to create, not have the shape be dictated by the geometry of the mesh.
"1/10th of the time" implies that it takes 10 times longer to do the math than it does to stare at the screen with your head in your hands saying "oh god what have I done?" to yourself. I'd wager that's not the case.