I am at a crossroads trying to determine whether I should keep bothering with
package-dependencies.

Monticello supports dependencies by using "add required package" on the menu. 
But I have run into an unexpected, but understandable behavior.  To describe,
consider my package hierarchy:

  MagmaServer.23
    requires MagmaClient.24
      requires Ma Client Server.17
        requires Ma Object Serialization.21

Now I do some work on MagmaServer and Ma Object Serialization, and now have
MagmaServer.24 and Ma Object Serialization.26.  Note that Ma Client Server did
NOT change, it is still at version 17.

Now I Save MagmaServer.24.  Even though expanding the hierarchy in the
Monticello browser shows the most-recent, working-copy versions of all my
packages as the dependencies, Ma Client Server.17 is still referencing Ma
Object Serialization.21 instead of 26.

I understand that Ma Client Server references its exact dependency versions by
UUID and, since it didn't change, didn't resave it just because one of its
dependencies evolved.

Still, its confusing that the UI shows the version of the current working copy
when you expand the dependency tree, not the exact dependency version.  Also,
when I save a package that defines dependencies, Monticello automatically saves
versions of all *changed* dependencies; implying that the root-package you are
saving is being saved with its dependencies as a whole.  But wait, those
packages that didn't change are still pointing to older versions of their
dependent packages.

I expect this is also why, after copying all my latest .mcz files into a SAR
that I sometimes still get "not found" errors when trying to load on another
computer; the referenced dependency is an old one and I only have the newest
ones in the SAR.

This is painful, so I'm thinking of just ditching dependencies and loading
packages and building SAR's manually..  unless there are other alternatives I'm
not considering..

Doesn't everyone have these challenges?  What is a best-practice?

Thanks,
  Chris