Andrew,
I agree with what you wrote with whole my heart.
I just MUST to provide the client with backup-recovery procedure.
Since the client knows nothing absolutely about Oracle,
I'm trying to make my guide for them as detailed as possible.
I provide the script to automate as much as I can.
Including copying controlfiles,
datafiles, archived logs, and deleting week-old archived logs.
Also I require them to create on another machine the database
with the same name and same path for all the files as on production
database before running restore, just to avoid any manual re-naming.
I feel the pain. Still, I cannot automate the RECOVERY procedure.
Some manual work is just required.

Why Oracle has such a complicated backup-recovery procedure??
Look at Sybase, it's just 1-2-3.

Thanks for responce
Ninel