When the articles are edited by the wiki team they'll included recipe images, and screenshots. I think the images will help you out a lot
This is what I assumed...that any items names would be enchanced with links to pages, and images showing GUI's and recipes would be included, and also that anyone reading could take the name, and look up the recipe in NEI.
As far as the machines, I tried to create a general understanding of things that were common to *all* farms, like how they are powered, that there is a machine that builds, and a machine that harvests, etc. and tried to stay away from going in-depth for every single machine. And then I listed the specific farms available and the machines required, which will be links that take you to those specific pages.
(Not to hijack the thread but) if you're building a tree farm for example, you would start with the Arboretum. The Arboretum builds the farm around itself, and plants the saplings. You don't have to build the area. The Logger is the machine that harvests.
Honestly, looking at that IC2 link, I tried to write it exactly like that, under the assumption that pictures and links would be added to the right places. It's understandable that the text alone is confusing. But I'm sorry you are confused!
*Edit* - Wanted to add, that's a very cool chart ICountFrom0