Are there acceptable shortcuts to redeploying PIAs and Apps during PT patching?

I understand that we “must” redeploy both PIA and App upon PeopleTools patching (per the supporting notes below). Firstly, is my general understanding correct? If so, are there any acceptable shortcuts? Is the issue more nuanced?

For example, may I redeploy the PIA and App once in a Demo environment, crawl through the differences, then ensure those changes are reflected during PT patching of later environments?

Thus far I have been relying upon the error-prone and tedious psadmin menu and custom configuration navigation. Assuming that my best bet is to perform silent installs, what are some of the better documents you would point me to as I try to figure this out for my first time? How do I know of changes that are needed to my silent install response file?