In reply to KTS915.

@Nick Halsey,

Thanks for taking time time to respond. But I'm afraid that I simply don't find that "the Customizer ... provides a better user experience."

I am a content creator -- a complete non-coder. From the tone of the discussion so far, it seems that I am precisely the sort of person for whom the Customizer is designed. Indeed, I am certainly very keen to have my content presented as well as it can be. Yet I still don't find the Customizer provides me with a "better user experience."

Much of what is in the Customizer is accomplished more precisely in a standard CSS file. That also means, of course, that the Customizer is adding bloat. (Your claim about lack of bloat is really that the Customizer is not adding as much bloat as other things do, which isn't quite the same thing. Many of us make sure to choose themes that don't provide the "horrifically bloated settings and options" that you mention.)

I also really have no idea how the Customizer will ever be much use when trying to set up certain widgets, or in choosing other complex options. These options simply can't be comfortably shoehorned into the Customizer's area.

I also don't see how front-end stuff, like editing, is going to help here. In fact, as a person who spends much of my time writing, I know that WYSIWG word-processors are not so much a help to content creation, but a massive hindrance. Give me LyX and LaTeX any time!