After ready a few posts two ideas hit me...
1) What about documenting the templates like documenting a script. Something like:
<-- The following html builds the moderator column. Remove all of the html between this comment and the next to remove the moderator column -->
<bla>Here is the html</bla>
<-- End of the moderator column -->
So if someone wants to remove the moderator column (or user ratings, or post ratings, or whatever) then pulling out the appropriate html would be easy.
2) I also like the color map idea: Show a graphic and the template / code that builds each section of a page. Might be tough to do it and make it easy to read though.
Just Da .02