You can't compare litestep and windowblinds. Windowblinds is socks, litestep is a hat. They do different things. (unless windowblinds does hats too now, I haven't been keeping up)

IMO the power is in scripting. Sure, you can add functionality by loading modules, and you can place shell components anywhere you like, in any shape, color, or texture, but the real power is that you can make them do just about anything you want. You can combine these pieces to do things that the module coders never dreamed of.