I am a fan of Knuckoll's book, although I sometimes thinks he uses a few extra components than necessary on occasion. I am all for building the most simple electrical system that will meet your mission requirements - the fewer components, the lower chance to failure. For a simple VFR airplane, the Van's drawing is completely adequate - it is what you'll find in most of the basic single-engined certified planes that have been out there for decades. Very simple to wire, easy to understand, and almost no "moving parts".
I usually have a bit more complex set of mission requirements, so my systems are a little more redundant - but no more complex than they have to be. Don't feel you have to out-engineer the other guys for a day/night VFR flyer....
Paul