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Many thanks Rick for your response - Im looking into this now. I have noticed the first marketing explainer template comes up "none" i.e. yet the comp mini flowchart does, but does explain much in the build? 
The mini flowchart is handy for a quick look but you are better off looking at the flowchart panel and having it next to the composition panel. To figure out what parts of the template you want to keep you drill down through your timeline until you find the part you want to keep. Let's take this simple example:
From the main comp I want the top line of text and I want the shape layer with the text overlay that says "want the shape." Imagine that this comp was as complex as yours. To find the parts that I want to use in my new comp I can start clicking in the flow chart. A single click on any of the flow chart icon's selects the comp in the project panel so you know what nested comp is being used or if the asset you want is a layer in a comp the layer is selected if the nested comp is active. You can make any layer or nested comp active by double clicking the asset in the flowchart. This helps you quickly figure out what part of the template you want to use in the new composition.
It also works the other way around. Say you have a very complex project, like your example and you want to use layer 20. If you click on layer 20 it will highlight it in the flowchart. Even if you open up a nested comp, as long as the flowchart is visible, clicking on any layer in any flow chart will highlight that layer in the flowchart if the chart is expanded.
When nested comps are selected in the project panel you can just drag them from the project panel into your new comp. I usually do all of this in the Project panel and then arrange everything later. If you want an individual layer that is part of one of the nested comps like the shape layer withy the text in my example you drill down to that asset, select it in the timeline, copy it and then open your new master comp and paste it in.
Once you are done you just run the Reduce Project utility from the File Menu and you have everything you need. This is a lot faster than using the "locate in project" feature from a pop-up menu. The mini flow chart doesn't help that much because you can't do any clicking and locating in the Project panel. About the only thing it is good for is quickly opening or navigating to a nested comp. Still handy but not nearly as useful for picking and choosing assets you want to use in a new project.
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