In reply to Dave Chu.

Well said Dave. Personally, I prefer simpler minimilist style themes. Some of my favorites (Expositio and Touchfolio) are no longer supported unfortunately. There are very few in that style being created.

All of these aesthetic bells and whistles (fade in text sliders, % counters, animated effects, etc) on themes these days are definitely contributing to more site problems and slower load times...but yeah, based on sales, that's apparently what most people want...so that's what they get. Some quality control would be nice though...and I'm not seeing it in 99% of theme demos I view.

I'm surprised there isn't a theme provider out there who's providing products that have it all (good aesthetics, attention to detail, minimalist styling, good support, and lots of features). As a buyer, it's like you have to chose one benefit or the other.

For example StudioPress gets rave reviews for their system and security, but their themes are quite lacking in the aesthetics or originality department in my opinion. Elegant Themes has great pricing but their themes are quite gaudy visually. Themeforest templates have plenty of options but they've become cookie cutter, buggy and bloated.

If someone could provide the best of all worlds, I see no reason why folks wouldn't pay $200 for a theme. I surely would, if I knew the support would be better and the code was cleaner.