I can tell you what I've found in my experience. I don't necessarily agree with a lot of what Palmer says. Well...let me re-state that, what he says may hold true, but it may not be the ideal situation or produce the best beer.
In my experience, simpler is better. I tend to keep my water profiles as simple as possible. I always start with distilled water and build from the ground up. The most important thing is the ph and the only real way to tell is to get a ph meter and take readings and get some experience with what works and what doesn't. I have done Imperial Stouts at 80 SRM and not needed more than 180 ppm of bicarbonate to get the ph where I wanted it.
I generally first think about what style of beer I am making. Should it be bitter? malty? tart? sweet? After I have determined what I want out of the beer I start determining what I need in order of importance.
1.) pH. 5.2-5.5 is ideal. 5.2 will generally provide a bit more tart beer. I shoot for this in wit's hefeweizens etc. If I want malty, like in dark beers, I get closer to 5.5. If I want balanced, like for most styles, I try to be around 5.3-5.4. Do I need to add acid to get it lower? If so my experience at this point tells me what I need. When I started I would add small amounts of acid at a time to get where I wanted. Martin and Kai's calculators are great for this. Do I have alot of crystal malts and dark malts? Do all of those malts need to be mashed? Do I need chalk? If so in my experience I have found anything more than 180 ppm of carbonate is not needed.
2.) Calcium is needed for yeast health and clarity and all that stuff. 40-50 ppm is the minimum recommended. Make sure you have enough calcium, whether it come in the form of chalk, calcium chloride or gypsum. Anything above 100 ppm is excessive. So get yourself in the 40-100 ppm range using the appropriate salts to get there, taking your pH into consideration first(chalk), then finally your sulfate to chloride ratio(gypsum or calcium chloride)
3.) Sulfate to chloride ratio. Again do I want malty? Bitter? I try to get the ratio where I want it but at the same time keep the mineral additions minimal to get there using Bru'n water's guidelines to get there. Bitter IPA? Ok great...I want a 5:1 sulfate to chloride ratio so I add gypsum and chloride to get there keeping my calcium level below 100 ppm so neither of the mineral additions are too high to make it minerally.
Hope this helps. If itll help, post a recipe you want to brew and myself, and others who are much more knowledgeable than myself on here will be happy to lend advice on a specific beer profile.