Just in case you were sensing any consensus, I'll throw out a few alternate views.....
NMEA 2000 is great when it works, and it has gotten better over the 10 years or so that I've been using it, but there are still lots of devices with bugs, incompatibilities, and different interpretations of how things should work together. And when it doesn't work, it's often very difficult to figure out why. Just by way of example, I had an odd issue where at times while getting underway, my radar would briefly alarm, then stop. After quite a while I narrowed it down and found that turning on the second of two VHFs would trigger the alarm. It didn't matter which VHF your turned on first and which second, but the second would cause the alarm. It subsequently turned into a "unique" approach to doing things on N2K by Icom, and some clear bugs in their N2K implementation. That was 5 years ago, and the bugs remain today in the M506 VHF.
NMEA 2000 COULD be really great, but it's just OK.
For reliability, repeatability, and overall robustness, I actually prefer 0183. There is a reason why NMEA 2000 is still not accepted on IMO boats, and only 0183 is approved. So don't reject 0183 outright. It has it's place and it's role, as does NMEA 2000.
Next is the question of PCs vs multi function displays (MFDs). Where space is tight, as in the OPs situation, or where waterproof operation is required, I do think MFDs are the most practical approach. But where there is space and/or things are dry, I prefer to get rid of the MFDs
In the same way some people "just say No" to PCs on their boat, I "just said No" to MFDs on our boat. I mostly didn't want to be locked into one vendor. I have run into too many situations where with a single vendor, 80% of their stuff works well, but 20% doesn't. With an integrated, single-vendor system, you either have to suffer through the 20%, or change EVERYTHING to yet another single vendor, and they suffer through THEIR crappy 20%. So you trade one set of issues for another set of issue, all while spending a lot of money and time.
My preference, given the option, is to use devices dedicated to their purpose. Radar, sounder, GPS, Weather, Charting, Auto pilot, etc. Then link them together strictly using industry standard interfaces, i.e. N2K or 0183. Then you can pick best of breed for each device, and if one proves unworthy, you can replace it without disrupting everything else.
I've built 5 different electronics suites to date, across 4 different boats, and prefer this approach. The exception has been a Grady White where there is only room for one display for everything, so I used Furuno TZ2. And everything is N2K as well. Because it's a small, contained system, it's not to hard to make it work, and verify that it's actually all working correctly.
I would like more. NEMA 2000 is the next step up from my understanding.
