Yes, I don't think this was an entirely professionally-designed theme. 

I decided to try it out on this particular board because it has a Thanksgivingy, colonial feel to it.  I didn't bother polishing it up (as you can tell).  I'm actually getting a bit bored with SMF's offerings, but I haven't found anything else quite yet that is better (and free).

I don't know, I kind of like the SMF format.  It is easy to use and simply laid out.  In general, my experience shows that the more bells and whistles something has the less overall functionality it has.  SMF does the whole forum piece extremely well I think.