I would argue that the skins hurt the average consumer far more than they help them. They delay updates (sometimes permanently) they caused noticeable performa

I would argue that the skins hurt the average consumer far more than they help them. They delay updates (sometimes permanently) they caused noticeable performance issues - especially early on. The changes made to apps (with HTC's sense in mind) ruined a lot of the design of the default applications and made it hard to use different android devices. While the giant glossy widgets and laggy animations may have impressed some, the overall damage caused wasn't merely bad for the power users - but everyone. What made this issue worse was that until the Nexus line it was essentially impossible just to run stock android on a modern phone. Cyanogen is cool, but in practice it has it's share of problems (gps not working, radio issues, having to unlock, root and flash the phone).