Either I just don't get the report customization links to various elements of the system or when it's all said and done, the reporting capabilities of NetSuite are quite limited.

Yes, I know there are a lot of reports, yet it seems I'm being asked to customize every single one of them and yet, can not get the data I need on a single report.

For one, you simply can't do customized reports around custom records. You need to work off of an existing built-in record that has it sourced as a parent-child relationship (and that has limitations such as who can see it and such). But if there is no relationship, you don't have any reporting capability (yet I can do searches - go figure).