I know the review team is working on improving things because I often go into the Slack and watch and read their meetings. It's good to know they are aware of what is going on. I also know that they work extremely hard to try and maintain and make the whole process better.

Still, the review process needs additional fine tuning. I brought this up to their attention before but themes are approved only on the basis of code and not design. I would love to see the theme directory focus on design quality as well, something to seriously compete with marketplaces and to offer users with quality themes. The end-user doesn't care about code (although important), they want themes that look great and offer features.

I will say though, compared to just a couple years ago, quality theme design has definitely improved when I look at the directory.

My idea was to have a 3-tier review process:
1st is to do an initial visual design review.
2nd is to do a code review.
3rd is for the admin's to give final approval.

The 1st tier would greatly reduce the backlog of themes and offer up faster review times for the ones that get through, perhaps even increase reviewer/author interaction with recommendations. I believe ThemeForest does an initial visual design review and their review times are down to like a week.

I also believe that to ensure you have quality reviews, you need quality people. Reviewers should somehow be interviewed by the Admins, as though it's a job they are applying for. To ensure the reviewer will take the role seriously and not walk away from the middle of a theme review, to fully grasp what it means to be a reviewer, to understand that it does require your time, and to let the author know you are there for them.

I agree that design can be subjective, but reviews should be 50% design and 50% code quality. People with a flare for design and enough experience would be ideal for this review process.

I'll be honest, I've considered ending new submissions (I currently have 3 themes in the queue), but we will see how the next month goes. I'm also thinking about adding the downloads to my site and provide support from my site as well...I've had many people waiting almost 3 months for my themes to go live at .org.

I know I've been asked to be a reviewer, but I'm still out on that decision for the time being.