Rick
I have been using the forum software your team produced since 1998 (Classic) and the biggest issue I see moving forward is integration. Yes you are a forum first however many of us are trying to build and retain a community. Forums were the base of the community back in the late 1990's (before they coined the team social networking) but that has changed. Blogs and other social network tools are now important in building a community. I do not think you/your team need to "re-invent the wheel" and try to create these new features (blogs, social networks, alumni directories, trip reports etc) in UBB. You will have to keep up with new features if you do. A light version of these features will not keep a community satisfied. This is why I voted for the UI. I am hoping that you build a new back end that will facilitate PLUG-IN for easier integration. I am tried of having to update the custom software that I have around the the UBB DB. I am tired of watching other forum software seamlessly integrate with the best of the best tools. Apart from Photopost/Classifieds (which I use) there is really nothing else that integrates with UBB. I may get chastised for this but there seems to be minimal effort to reach out and provide ways to integrate what has not become standard community software that is out there. I don't know if there is a "rift" but I strongly believe that UBBDEV and UBB should be working closer together. There should be a standard for Plug-in that integrate seamlessly...UBBDEV should be the place to get those standard plug-ins.
I know for many of you a UI will not bring more page views or maximize ad dollars (CPM)in the short term. However if it is done with the goal of seamless integration for plug-ins it will help in the long term.
