Restoring Wiped iPhone via Sync instead of Backup

Yesrterday I was at a Genius Bar and the tech advised me that my iPhone probably had some corrupt data. He suggested thatthe best way to handle it would be to wipe my phone, and then NOT respore it from backup. He explained that any corruption would be captured in the backup and I would just be restoring the corruption. So he said I should retrore via Sync.

It wasn't until I got home and started the process that I realized all the implications. Yes I could restore all my Apps, but I would

1) need to manually recreate all my orgainzational folders and put the Apps on the right screen (1st creeen, second screen, etc).

2) any customization in each App would be lost; and

3) any Game Apps in which I had scores and had finished levels and such (think Angry Birds) would be wiped and I would be starting again from scratch.

I would also have to manually recreate the settings for Contacts, Calendars, etc.

This seems both like a huge pain and a significant lass. Ami I missing something? Is there a step or work-around I'm missing. Do I really have no option between keeping corrupt data and going through this time ocnsuming process which -- no matter how much work I put in -- will leave me having lost so