In reply to James Koster.

I agree with both points.

Additionally, having a completely custom admin interface for this theme might make it even harder for beginners to use WordPress. Let's say this is the first theme a user picks up and the first time they use WordPress. Then, decide to start a new site or change themes on this site, then they have a whole new learning curve to learn the actual WordPress interface rather than this customized interface.

If every theme came with it's own customized WordPress dashboard, no matter how "simple" the developer thinks it might be, it will add heaps of unintended complexity in the long run.