GeoTIFF without Mapping Toolbox?

I'm doing some operations on raster data saved in NetCDF format - get needed variable, reproject, crop to extent and save output as GeoTIFF, multiply values, creating a histogram.

I've written a Python script which together with GDAL tools accomplish those tasks.

I wonder about rewriting my script in MATLAB. Unfortunately, I have no access to Mapping Toolbox and I am not sure how much effort will it cost to write/find functions to provide support for my operations.

Could you share your opinion? Is it reasonable? Will I need to understood internal structure of GeoTIFF files?

[Hannah Reid]

I also have this question, did you ever find a solution?