Most of those don't look nearly as good as the Themeforest stuff. See, this is the crux of the matter for me: would I rather mess around with a truly free temp

Most of those don't look nearly as good as the Themeforest stuff. See, this is the crux of the matter for me: would I rather mess around with a truly free template to get it looking decent, or pay someone the huge amount of $20 to have it instantly. Obviously, by and large, the latter wins.