Sorry, I read the entire thread and wanted to reply to all of it.
A submission may not be to my personal preferences, but that doesn't mean it's not good, or that I don't appreciate it's value. Someone else may love it. To me, the difference between a good skin and bad is the polish of the final product. How does it work? How useable is it? How many bugs does it have? Do the actual images need work? Making a skin is extremely time consuming. Not only do you need to have artistic skills for the images, skin studio isn't exactly intuitive in all areas. I respect anyone who can actually complete a theme, no matter how rough it turns out.
What is needed is constructive criticism. Being mean just makes you an ass. Skinning, just like any other form of art is subjective. Instead of saying it's good, or sucks define why you do/don't like it. Example: Wow! That text just pops right out at you. The color blending the start menu is awesome. using transparency on your buttons will remove those jagged edges. The colors kinda clash. The background is too dark for the text,etc.
This will take the submitting artist off of the defensive. Instead of wasting time justifying to themselves (and everyone else) how it doesn't suck, they can concentrate on the areas they need to improve. It would result in less conflict, a friendlier atmosphere, and skinners progressing much faster, and ultimately more quality skins.
I think we all miss not getting new themes from the above mentioned greats. If what Brad says is correct, maybe we will see some great new themes from them in the future
