@Justin Tadlock -

Or, a completely alternate route — don’t pay anything at all for themes. There are quality, free themes out there.

Oh, c'mon Justin, it's more than a little hypocritical for you, whose own theme club charges a subscription for full access to support, to attack others for being commercial. I am not saying that, at $25, you don't over good value, but you certainly aren't in a position to attack others simply because you've chosen to charge for a different part of the overall package.

No-one who has ever read any of my comments can accuse me of not supporting free and open over commercial, but we have to recognize that many people are happy to pay certain things for a number of reasons, all of which essentially boil down to the expectation that it will save them, in their own business, time and trouble. Given that a commercial themes market is going to exist, I would much prefer to see it adopt principles that live up to those expectations, rather than simply being a way for scammers to rush in and charge ridiculous amounts for precious little.

Your comment reads like a big, honkin’ promotional ad for StudioPress

I do not have any vested interest in StudioPress or any theme business; unlike you, I am not making money from themes. I do, however, respect that fact that Brian has never adopted a ridiculous subscription model and that, when he launched under a new brand, he didn't use it as an excuse to abandon his old developer license holders, he transferred them over to his new site and has continued to provide support and to evolve his products, all for that same initial license cost. This was actually a smart business move because it created a lot of good will and good word-of-mouth that has probably made him a lot more money in the long-run. My use of StudioPress as an example of how commercial theme should be sold is merely another manifestation, an echo of that good will.

You mean they will only continue getting updates. Let’s clear that up. The themes, from what I can see on the site, will continue to work after your subscription is up.

The chances of a theme not working with a WP upgrade are pretty slim. I have themes I coded for WP 2.3 that I know still work.

Work in the sense of still displaying posts in some form? Sure, possibly. Most people who pay money for a theme do so, however, because they want to create a website that will look impressive and up-to-date. Is a theme that hasn't been updated since 2007 going to include Gravatars? Is it going to be able to take advantage of the new menu system in 3.1?

You say that there is only a slim chance that a WP upgrade will break a theme but there is no way that you or anyone can know for sure. If a situation does arise in which a segment of WP users stop upgrading because they want to keep their existing theme but don't want to pay an ongoing subscription, well, that makes WordPress as a whole less secure, more of a target. Simply as a matter of security, it would be better if commercial theme sellers adopted the approach of selling upgrades as an integral part of the theme cost, undertaking to support that theme for a reasonable lifetime of, say, 3 or 4 years.

Of four leading “commercial” frameworks, two of which I wouldn’t even consider frameworks.

Yes, I accept that I made a mistake in leaving out the word "commercial".

As for two of the four not being frameworks, however, I think Aaron wrote a good, detailed review and, as such, I am willing to accept his definition of what is and is not a framework. If you disagree with his definition, why not write your own comparative review and contribute to the ongoing discussion instead of bitterly sniping from the sidelines?

...let’s try to keep the facts straight and not bend the truth in our favor.

Seriously, you're being a prick. I am not "bending" the truth, you know exactly what I meant, sorry that I didn't get a team of lawyers to double-check every word before I pressed Submit, sorry my comment didn't make it past your pedantic and notably hypocritical sensors. I am bending nothing in my favor; unlike you, I don't have any skin in this game, there is no "my favor", my only interest is in not seeing innocent WordPress users get skinned by predatory pricing strategies.