There are plenty of sites out there that do quite well with stock styles, here is a great example
http://www.satelliteguys.us They just changed a couple of on/off images but other than that it's the standard style and they have tons of users. I know that when I am after something that's on a forum it's content that drives me there, it's great to have an aesthetically pleasing site but it's just icing on the cake IMO.
Kall, I don't mean to stray your thread off topic, this has turned into an interesting topic with everyone's views though.