Dotfiles Are Not Meant to Be Forked
Exactly my thoughts! Cloning someone else's dotfiles leaves you with hundreds of functions, aliases etc. you have no idea about (nothing is worse than oh-my-zsh in that regard). Starting fresh and than picking and choosing from other people's dotfiles, blog posts, etc. -- trying new stuff and removing it again when it doesn't seem to be useful might initially be more work, but will be much more rewarding in the long run.