I feel like if someone built a crappy website with a page builder, then they likely would have built a crappy site with traditional tools unless you stick to page templates provided by the theme which are limited in the design category. I've used shortcodes for layouts and they are too cumbersome for both me and my clients.

I've tried out Elegant Themes builder, but I'm using Visual Composer exclusively now. Theme integration is very important - I worked with a theme that bundled VC but it was inconsistent with layouts. I am using a multi-purpose theme with the latest VC with good results.

I also have an art director that comes from a print background so this helps tremendously. My sites are all responsive so there is a little give and take but so far so good.

This is just my opinion - I welcome comments. Thanks to you guys at WP Tavern for great articles.