You should check out Lunetta Modula. I could be your dream plugin for such a project. Within the collection are many configurations of NAN gates.
I think you nailed it.
I explored creation of all the logic gates in my Fundamental Constructs posts. But that was in the early days of the VCV stock modules - before things like CV-MIX and LOGIC existed.
One critical thing you will have to consider when building complex machines is the sample delay introduced by every cable. You quickly run into sync issues when creating compound logic constructs. You will need a way of introducing sample delays to keep things in sync. I like to use the Grande Variable Sample Delay.
My Venom Logic module supports 9 configurable logic gates and allows you to reuse outputs from earlier gates without introducing sample delays. It has a bunch of non-intuitive but very useful features, so read the documentation carefully.
The Lunetta Modula CD4048 can also perform some simple compound logic without sample delays, but I think it is a bit more cryptic and cumbersome to use.