In reply to Peter Knight (@peterrknight).

I hear ya. It's hard times, Peter! The theme game done changed!

See my comment below about the renewable support options coming to ThemeForest. It's a good example of how they are using their reach to improve things, such as buyer expectation.

At the core of it, it's a step in the right direction from a company which has, what I believe are, good intentions and that's hard to find on the internet these days. Amongst countless other contributions, they introduced a GPL license option so one of their authors would be allowed to speak at WordCamps. They met my personal challenge to raise theme prices back in 2011 and introduced higher prices and the Elite Author program. Beyond all the regurgitated rhetoric around Envato, there really is something to work with there. Now, how people utilize it, that's another story. ;)