Glad to see people commenting about the shop and the general discussion that came out of this article.

I would like to point out that while Google took a big swing at affiliates, it also helped out the big guys get even bigger.

I've been tracking over 50 keyword phrases for some years now, and since April-May 2014, ThemeForest jumped to first 2 positions for most keywords, while it was steadily on 3-7 positions.

Even though many affiliates didn't produce any kind of content, they still provided opportunities to new shops to get into the market.
Now, if you are not with ThemeForest, you can't really compete, no matter how good your themes are. If nobody knows about you, it doesn't matter if your theme is good or bad.

Now all you can do is either partner up with a marketplace or just disrupt the market, usually with low prices.

Just like VATMESS, Google's algorithm punishes affiliates for bad content (a noble intention), but the result is that legit startups get caught in the crossfire.

And no, I don't believe in the idea that "if a theme is good, people will find it and buy it". If the game is against you, you will have to struggle A LOT.