Another idea would be that you download and install the addons manually, without Minion.
That would need you to manually check and repeat it several times then, as addons and libraries can update often
But I think you said indirectly that you can't do that? Forgive me if I did not understand you correctly.
I cannot think of any easy way to help you here, Minion definately would be the easiest help you can get as it will download and update your addons, can even update automatically.
So what exactly is your issue with Minion? If you tell us what is not working we might be able to fix and help you use it,