Is there a tool which can be used to script the modification of configuration files which look like this
I don't know what the technical term, if there is one, for that configuration file format is but it's quite common.

Such files can always be modified from a shell script using sed or similar, but it often requires some careful thought to make sure you only modify the right part of the file, that the script doesn't create a mess if run multiple times and other such considerations. I'm wondering if there is a nicer way of doing it. I've looked at augeas but it doesn't appear to understand such files as they don't show up under /files.

You could probably use sed to edit such files in a script. This is often done for these types of files when you install a package.

sed -i '/[Section One]/,/^$/{
/ArbitraryName/s/=.*/=8/
}' configfile

This type of configuration file is common. It was used for Windows 3.1 configuration files, and is mentioned in the "Art of Unix Programming". It is easy to edit in a script using tools like sed or awk.

Another type are files containing name=value pairs that can be sourced as a bash scripts. You can simply execute the config script and use the set variables. One example would be the ifcfg-* configuration files.

A third type are XML files, which require tools like xsltproc to process. They aren't as easy to process but are much more flexible.

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That example of using sed you show looks like a lot cleverer than how I've done it though and after reading http://www.grymoire.com/Unix/Sed.html#uh-35 I think I understand what it's doing. So even though it's still using sed, it's an improvement over what I've been doing thus far, thanks.