I’m no php coder, but I do know how to edit simple html, css and php to add or remove features to the themes.

I’m often need to strip themes down to look like regular websites, not blogs.

The 3.0 menu system relieved a lot of headaches on this end but this slippery slope is still there.

My main problem with the ‘user control’ issue comes from learning about WP by being a user first, then a developer. I learned everything I know from deconstructing themes, playing with the markup and the template tags. As a user who is curious about how things work, I liked that I could go into a theme and see how it was put together.

If I had picked up Thesis or Atahualpa as my first theme, I don’t know if I’d ever have gotten to where I am now in my WP knowledge.

I guess I want the people that like to tinker to have enough leeway to do what they want to without sacrificing the ability for complete newbs to manage their sites effortlessly.

I guess it’s an ongoing dilemma, though as WP marches into Drupal territory function-wise I wonder if the WP Core team has the same philosophical debate in their own heads.

typo: “I think certain features like being able to change fonts, font sizes, or changes that amount to basic CSS changes probably are NOT necessary ”

*missed NOT from above…

I think certain features like being able to change fonts, font sizes, or changes that amount to basic CSS changes probably are necessary from a back end option standpoint. It doesn’t take much to implement these changes with Firebug and some playing around.

Also, some premium themes add a ton of SEO options which is probably a waste of time from a development standpoint since these can be integrated by using a free plugin like SEO ultimate.

For me as a basic user, I would like options that affect the layout of the blog (2 columns vs. 3, column layout), or changes that allow to configure the layout of the Front page. Other useful changes include the ability to configure category pages to have full posts, excerpts, etc. Bottom line: anything that would require editing PHP is probably beyond what I ever want to have to learn about as a blogger.

Many themes are trending toward allowing users to upload a blog banner or change the background color which is good for very basic users.

Anyway, as a new user to Wordpress, I think it’s probably more important to include layout options that would require PHP editing rather than options that can be fairly easily changed with CSS.

All exemples you did are CSS related. Don’t solve CSS problems with PHP.

For my theme options page I add options to choose the doctype, default posts and comments languages, change the header image… and that’s it.

Wanna change a CSS config? Use a child theme or a plugin to add an extra CSS file, and add your customs there.

For customizations on HTML, add actions and filters where users wanna change and let them use their child theme to implement it.