I'm very glad to see unusual WP configurations - it gives you an idea of what is possible. There are quite enough clone themes out there, thank you very much. :)

If someone doesn't follow "the WordPress way", it doesn't hurt my feelings any (unless someone's doing actual harm) - to me, the only downside is for the author, who might take flack for doing things in unusual ways, as well as maybe not being able to upgrade something that doesn't work with his/her unique scenario.

I'm a huge WP fan, but I used loads of systems before arriving there - there's a lot of great stuff out there. And I have my own private collection of WP annoyances, but none have led me completely astray. That Jason went on walkabout and still came back is a big compliment to WP. I might have guessed that he'd have grabbed one of those PHP frameworks.

Dave