Question

is there any way to style the output of <jdoc:include type="component" /> within the templates without modifying Joomla core function?

Specifically, I would like to add a div with id article to include the article and nothing else. By now, in my theme, there’s a div with class item-page that includes the article, the ratings, the action and even the comment box (added with an external plugin).

So, I would like the new templates to be something like:

<div class="item-page>
    <!-- something here -->
    <div id="article">
        <!-- The article and nothing else here -->
    </div>
    <!-- comments and whatever may be here -->
</div>

Answer 1

Use a layout override.

Go to the tmpl folder of the view you want to modify the layout for and copy to the html folder of your template … so say article:
get /components/views/article/default.php and copy that to
templates/[yourtemplate]/html/com_content/article/default.php
Modify the file as you wish.

This will default change it on all pages using that template.