This is fantastic perspective on a topic (obviously) near and dear to my heart. I read Ben's article the other day, and my gut reaction was to panic. Then I thought, "No worries, we sold StudioPress to WP Engine and it's not my responsibility anymore." It's a good thing, because they have gone above and beyond what we were doing (and could have done moving forward) and have evolved as the technology has.

I consider myself a designer way more than I do a developer, which explains why I handled the front-end (child themes) of Genesis, and Nathan handled the back-end of Genesis. This is a season that I sincerely look forward to.

I concur that the theme landscape is on the verge of changing drastically, and as an advocate of minimalism and simplifying, I am looking forward to being a part of—dare I say it—another WordPress revolution.