brent Don't make the installer do all the work--I've never known it to.
What you describe is how I used to do an install before Calamares. Since it became the Solus installer, I've used it exclusively to install Plasma and Xfce on laptops, and all the DEs on VMs. I always use it to create swap with hibernation, and it's never failed for me.
I'm not sure why you're having problems with it, but after you figure that out, I think you'll really enjoy letting the installer do the work.