The creation or the half dozen or so List Templates and the Site
Template is a great approach. However, I'm not sure what this means and
I would guess that this is a problem:

"I customized  it by adding  6 default  pages, accessible  via tabs
(interactive buttons)."

First, you can't have six default pages  on a single site. Only one can
be the default. Second, how did you create  them? Were they inside of a
Web Part Page Document Library? Third, where did you get the interactive
buttons from? Are they in a Web Part inside a Web Zone? Are they based
on a dynamic Data View Web Part? If not, these are probably problematic.

What you are trying to do is not difficult to accomplish but must be
done properly. It would probably be best to use a site  Definition.