I just spent the day yesterday overhauling the entire template system and CSS file. Managed to cut down the CSS to one file at 500 lines, and deleted/combined about 30 superfluous templates. I actually broke out the button CSS into its own file, and that one alone is 500 lines. Absurd.
Unfortunately I feel this version has taken a step backwards as far as ease of template editing goes. The multi-folder system (core templates plus the skin templates) makes it extremely cumbersome to edit, and of course there is duplication still which makes it frustrating.
Still a buggy release as well, I had issues adding Authorize.net, had some internal server errors when enabling real-time shipping.
As far as the templates go, they are STILL using depreciated tags in the code (FONT - can you believe it?) and empty span tags due to poor if statement coding. The multi-column product structure is awful - they used tables but didn't keep the individual products in their own cells, so you can't easily add boxes or borders around them, the cart layout is awful and confusing. The use of fixed heights in the CSS and relative/absolute positioning makes it annoying, you can't just add content and let it auto-expand, you constantly have to adjust heights and floats. That was one of the first things I rewrote. The home template has 10 nested <div> tags for the overall layout. Seriously?
Still a LONG way to go with this version I'm afraid, and a LOT of rewriting for me to do before I can use it for a live site.