I think what Terrell is saying is that if you need to add extra weight (IE more weight than is needed to balance) in order to make your plane fly correctly, then you have other trim problems other than being out of lateral balance.

As for the original question, yes, you're making it too complicated. Just add weight to the wingtip.

The reason for using the wingtip is that just a few grams of weight (think of about 4 or 5 pennies worth of weight) will do as much at the wingtip as the weight of a cylinder head and a muffler will do way inside at the cowl. Get it? Plus, if you add that much weight to the nose, you'll have to compensate with more tail weight. Next thing you know, your plane will fly like a brick.