I agree with you completely. The classic style is hard to beat in terms of ease of use and, IMHO, tasteful simplicity. The only reason most people dislike it and find it dull, I think, is that we're so used to it. Hell, we've been looking at this style for ten years or so...

A vertical titlebar gradient would be great, that'd really spice up that old look immensely. I doubt it can be done (easily) though, otherwise we would probably have seen examples of it by now.

As for slimming stuff down... well, I happen to know that there's a great little module being developed ATM. It'll be all a classic color fan will need as far as LS goes. I can't say more since it's all very unofficial right now, but it'll probably be released in the not-too-distant future.