In reply to Ryan Love.

Not at all. Those Themeforest themes DO look better, to the point that Ive been tempted to buy a couple just to see how they did something! (So I could then rebuild it in Genesis.)

And I'm the last person who should be criticizing anyone's poor code - I'm sure some of mine, anyway, would curl the hair of better devs!

Lately I've come to realize that Genesis is for developers. The child themes are very nice and getting better all the time - but as you pointed out, there's plenty of room for embellishment.

That's perfect for me: last Saturday, someone asked me why I liked Genesis so much, and my answers were all about how the files are organized - and how much I like the hooks and filters.

So if a person isn't willing to learn a little presentational php and a lot of css, I can agree: Genesis/StudioPress are going to be a long exercise in frustration.