On a different note, for myself, I probably won't bother to submit my new theme (even though it's awesome) because:
1. I am a primarily a plugin coder and so my approach to theme authoring is improving on standards, as such my code is hardly likely to ever pass the theme check standards. :-/
2. Coding the customizer (mostly callbacks) for every theme option is way too much of a pain, and I have specifically used theme options framework to avoid it in the first place only to find out when looking to release my theme it has now been made a "requirement"? :-(

I personally think the customizer requirement should be dropped, as there can be many options in a theme that do not even fit the need for a being a customizer option as they do not affect the visual outcome at all. Anyone know how strict this requirement is or can I just limit to the actual relevant display options and hope to get approved? If so, I might bother to do it and fix any issues for #1 too.