Multiple Sections Within a Structure Group? My site has a set of different layout types with their own templates:


Brochure
Listing
Plain Text


And the site has a group of hierarchical pages that each use a different layout:


About (Brochure Layout)


Employees (Listing Layout)
History (Plain Text Layout)



So I've got these 3 pages each with different content and layout requirements that all need to be grouped together under the "About" page. But I can only use one Section type per Structure.

I don't want to use Entry Types, because I need to use the layouts in multiple places on the site. For example there's a Brochure-type page in the site's 'Careers' area. If something about the layout changes I don't want to have to go through multiple Entry Types to make the changes over and over.
First, try to separate the concepts of content modeling (how things are set up in the CP) and information architecture (how things are going to be presented to the user on the front-end site) in your mind. Are these “Employees” and “History” pages inherently sub-content of “About”, or is that just how you’re choosing to display it on the front-end? My hunch is it’s the latter, in which case a Structure section is not the right choice to begin with - and perhaps 3 separate Single sections makes more sense.


  I don't want to use Entry Types, because I need to use the layouts in multiple places on the site. For example there's a Brochure-type page in the site's 'Careers' area. If something about the layout changes I don't want to have to go through multiple Entry Types to make the changes over and over.


I feel you on the annoyance for having to maintain multiple (near-)identical field layouts, and this is something we hope to make better someday, but I would argue that it’s not going to be as bad in practice to keep these field groups in sync as you’re fearing – or at least not bad enough that the currently-possible workarounds will be worth the effort.