Making an iterative formula shorter in Excel
Why not create user-defined functions? User-defined functions can be used in the same flavor as Excel functions (i.e. =CUSTOM_FUNC_FOO(A1:B2)), and be composed similarly in formulas. There are many advantages: better readability (because the logic is encapsulated), better algorithms (because you gain access to programming structures). The downside is that you need to write a bit of VBA, which you may not be familiar with (it's not complicated though).