I have failed repeatedly over the years to make a Flesh-like skin with glyphs as new tatoos. I think Po took a stab {LOL} at it once too.
I was thinking something similar to your post the other day as I went throught the DX themegallery. There used to be more unique interfaces out there. People were doing crazy, cool stuff. Now we see very usable but . . . normal stuff.
It's hard to guess the next trend. Oftentime it's all about the "buzz". If you, for example, came up with some crazy interface (I should have used IRB as an example

) and it was talked up by the other MaxStyles skinners and picked up here . . there'd be clones (and a trend) sooner or later.
Me, I still miss all the smart button in earlier skins. And clocks and media players in the skin. When is *that* trend coming back.

Maybe we should wait until the next Apple facelift, huh?