I think I can explain how to get started with require.js pretty quickly. I've attempted to do so with a short gist: https://gist.github.com/willurd/6054834 (much shorter than the OP and a higher code/text ratio).
Thanks, that actually helps. Also having a demo helped me clarify that I can still use the Chrome debugger on require.js sources. I used Dojo a couple of years ago and lost a lot of debugging capabilities due to the way it evals the loaded scripts.