Jumping into the Framework debate: I think we're rapidly heading toward a world where there will only be a couple of viable theme frameworks. It doesn't make sense to take the extra effort to make your theme do all the work that frameworks do unless you really think you're going to be one of the few frameworks that's still around in a couple years.

Meanwhile, there's still plenty of room for one-off themes and (eventually) child themes for major frameworks. As a developer, I appreciate the ability to have a client pick out a theme that's almost what they want as a starting point for customization. Frameworks are nice, but if you know what you're doing, it's just as quick to make customizations in code. (As a bonus, any work I do in PHP is unlikely to be accidentally undone by less savvy end-users.)