I've tried to work with a few professional designers and while they have had some good suggestions it has always wound up being something that wouldn't be good for a stock release. Again, as with the feature requests, I tend to heavily rely on the people that actually use the product. The users know what they need it to do and how it should look. Because they aren't going to suggest a change that is going to limit the functionality.
And I guess I am looking for more of a band-aid solution at this point. Like I said in another thread, it looks as if the PHP version will make templates a definite possibility so there is no use in gutting the thing at this point.