You say there's to much going on in the default theme. What do you mean by that? To many functions, to many options? Or is it about reducing file sizes?
The functions and options are fine as they are, in fact I like that about Curve. Reducing file sizes would be a start, but no, that's not what I meant. I'm talking pure aesthetics - not function. Imagine if Curve were a car - In that scenario, I would effectively be describing the outermost body, or hull, of said car. I couldn't care for the inner workings of the car - but I definitely don't see the purpose of unnecessary air vents in the roof of the car for a development environment, so to speak.
It's a good idea, and perhaps SMF should have an official one, but as far as I know nobody has ever made such a thing for SMF. Basically the problem is that SMF themers tend to be rather unadventurous, and tend to make themes that are fairly minor modifcations of the current default. Obviously this statement will cause some disgruntlement, but I think it's true. Rearranging a couple of divs in index.template.php and changing some graphics does not, IMHO, constitute major changes.
I don't advocate that SMF should offer one (though it would certainly be appreciated), I'm just surprised that after all these years no one who uses SMF or is comfortable making themes (and perhaps is a little experienced) has made one available by now. As for themers being unadventurous, from what I've seen I'd have to say quite the opposite. You're full aware that I've been modifying themes for a long time over at DzinerStudio and I very much agree that making subtle changes is not an entirely difficult process, but making a means to an end for simplifying the development process even further would certainly increase the chances of designers being more comfortable in expanding their theme's prowess - the only thing stopping them is the fact that there is so much unnecessary code splattered across every single template because back when Curve was first created, that was the web design way of achieving things.
Let me tell you something about my personal life. I work in market analysis and research. My most current project is to research the major types of commodities of commercial agriculture in every province in South Africa right down to the respective municipal districts and then interviewing the major producing farmers in those districts by telephone for a large banking institution. South Africa has a population of 49.8 million people, and farming plays a big part. Only two other people and myself are working on this project - and the time it took to complete doesn't even hold a candle to the time it took me just to remove the code for the rounded corners in every Curve template (which I have since upgraded to a cross browser CSS3 method that achieves the same result - I can control this with one variable in a LESS file). :/
