It would indeed. How's this grab you: build the basic shuttle as an open framework using something like the ISS trusses. Bolt a pre-fab propulsion module (engines and tanks) on one end, crew compartment (if needed) on the other. Bolt shielding around the sensitive areas.
Attitude control provided by control moment gyros, with jet backup. Attitude determination using star-field trackers. Power generated by solar cells bolted onto the "sides" of the trusswork -- possibly on three sides. This also stiffens the structure considerably.
Autonomous orbit determination using TDRS-type GEO satellites, with a standard ground-based backup.
Cargo modules bolt onto the open trusswork. There'd have to be some means for active CG control, but I suspect that's mostly a matter of accounting for mass properties, and a water distribution system for ballast operations.
As an added bonus, never plan to put the moon shuttle into lunar orbit -- just let it complete the figure-8 and stop it back in Earth orbit. Instead, strap a propulsion module onto the cargo unit, and let it put itself into lunar orbit.
(But note -- there's a whole lot of infrastructure going on here....)
That points up a gripe of mine. O'Keefe is referring to the ground facilities of NASA as infrastructure. Fine, but it isn't space infrastructure. NASA has no space infrastructure, it is all surface infrastructure. The moon shuttle would be space infrastructure, and space infrastructure is what will make the lunar base, the Phobos base, the eventual Mars base, the deep orbit base and all the other bases possible.