VS.NET doesn't wash the dishes...
I was a bit surprised reading Robert McLaw's recent complaints about his problems building deployment solutions for his software products. As a tool vendor himself, he should realize that Visual Studio is not meant to be the be-all end-all in tools. Sure, it offers an extremely rudimentary means of creating installer projects, but it isn't suitable for anything but the most basic of installations. If you want a robust installer, purchase a robust tool for creating them. (I see now that he's taking a look at a few solutions).
There is a reason that Wise and Installshield have a big market - installing software on computers has never been a simple task, and it is getting more and more complicated with every passing technology. Think the GAC really makes things easier from a deployment perspective? Then you probably haven't messed with things like publisher policy files. Installations are by nature complicated beasts. XCOPY need not apply.