[cbsmith]

But do you see how that extra level of indirection basically maks arguments about the different formatting styles for localization kind of irrelevant?

[tenfingers]

I do, yes. But the translator needs to be aware of the extra indirection to produce the text he needs, and between a custom layer and a standard formatting syntax, the second is definitely friendlier for anyone approaching translation, even when technically less powerful.

At some point the translator will have to format some string himself.

[cbsmith]

There's no reason why your "ID" can't be the template for your default language.