I would agree, everyone appears to over estimate solar costs. First you don't put anything in or on your house (I have but that is another story). Free standing array away from the house, all components in a free standing shed away from the house. This does 2 things, first just as with outdoor wood boilers, it does not effect your insurance (if you require or care about), and you can do the work yourself (it is not a dwelling unit).
I am assuming you have built the house to electrical code as you should have and thus your panels and the rest of the system just become the supply source. By doing the work yourself, Labour costs that you can cut out will drop 25 maybe 35% of your total costs. Second, components are cheap, cheap I am telling you. I say that as someone who started buying panels roughly in 2000 (75 watt 12 volt BPs) at a price that causes a nose bleed and tremor in my hands just thinking about.
The last time I bought panels was in 2012, Canadian manufacture, at 58 cents a watt. That is practically  free! One pallet of panels has lets say roughly 6500 watts, So $3800.00 gets you a power source that will last your lifetime, and that can power a reasonable home, even in the frozen north of Canada 10,10.5 months of the year. December is just crappy for sun so there is some augmentation with a 2000 watt inverter generator needed.
I buy inverters off kijij used, from people upgrading their system from 12 volt (I am happy with 12 volt)
Currently using a heavy low freq inverter bought of kijiji for 50. 00. I think I spent more in gas driving to the city to get it. Runs my house just fine, does dim the lights a bit if I am welding in the garage. Now with Lifepo4, I can't believe how well they work and how affordable. The last battery I bought 3.5kwhs (12.8 volts at 280amp hour) was 750 dollars though that sale was a one off, usually twice the price, but even at full retail of 1500 that is a great deal.
Tech wont save us is right, but it can save me, that is all I ask of it.