In reply to Tai.

@Tai -

I really don't understand your somewhat egotistical comment. If you actually read my post, you'll see that I readily admin that I need to be much better at JS. My understanding is that to get the Customizer interface to load quickly, one needs to use PHP templates for custom JS code to implement the controls. And as Weston noted earlier, all that code goes beyond basic JS - it is not trivial.

So, as far as needing to really getting deep into unconventional JS design, yeah, I probably need to do that. Perhaps I can shave a few seconds off the Customizer load time.

But that has absolutely nothing to do with "IA, UI, UX and fundamental design principles". I'm already pretty good at that. I think it is a pretty major accomplishment to make any of the 600 options available in at most 3 clicks.

While I'd like the JS interface to load in a second or two, a few seconds really isn't that bad since that is a one-time deal for each session. I do stand by my contention that the basic Customizer tools available to any theme designer with good PHP fundamentals, and perhaps just basic JP competency allow for building pretty good interfaces that will work in reasonable time.