I agree, the Apache configuration lacks documentation, I think because it lacks some design decisions and has a legacy of features from e-smith.
We should follow conventions from upstream. Existing RPMs from our base distro are not used to configuring virtual hosts and I think it is a good habit we have to maintain.
Thus, until we develop a virtual-host panel, my preferred way to configure a virtual host is drop a .conf file under /etc/httpd/conf.d.
I proposed the same in the past and I agree we should go that way!
Also we had some discussions on this topic I want to recall