Yet another Apache 403 question I'm afraid, but the question here is a bit more specific. I gather that the error I'm encountering
(13)Permission denied: access to /~Rax/ denied (filesystem path '/Users/Rax/Sites') because search permissions are missing on a component of the path
can be fixed by giving execute permissions to every directory on the path to the User (_www) specified in /private/etc/apache2/httpd.conf. But this seems insane: it means _www has execute permissions for my home directory. Is this really the correct approach? Is there no way to reach the Sites folder by some kind of indirection ("skipping over" /Users/Rax/)?
This isn't fabricated by Apache — execute man 7 path_resolution on your system. The three ways around it are to make your home directory world-executable, make your home-directory group-executable and share a secondary group with your webserver userid, or move your content out of your home directory.