I don't think any of that is required. It seems easy and flexible if done reasonably.

You simply create a separate /home partition and use it normally. When it comes time to upgrade, allow the installation program to reformat the other partition(s) if you want, but not home. Don't let the installation program create a new /home, tell it which one to use. When you create the non-root user, the home directory will already exist.

You'll have to make sure you specify the same UID, but it'll be easiest to just accept the default (501) in both cases.

All that I do is is to select custom partitioning (during installation), define my existing /home partition as /home and make sure that I create users in the same order as I did on previous occasions (so that they have the same UID's as before). When I boot into the new installation my settings and files are all recognized and used. As indicated by Ken's reply, this approach is simple and easy (and used by many people).

Jim