I just pick backgrounds that work well with the skittle positions. A game character far left, or far right, or middle often works really well.
I haven't even tried the themes because I prefer custom wallpapers hand picked by me.
I've long ago made peace with the skittles; I think I'd probably prefer rectangles or squares, but it would be weird if they switched now. I'd like more positions, I guess, though the fixed positions are forgivable.
I'd want more than 10 pages so I could have more 'dedication' pages (FF franchise, etc....) but I figure 10 pages is probably never going to change due to the need for the Vita OS to be blazing fast (which it is). I have a feeling many of the limitations -- number of skittles per page, number of total pages, etc. are there to enforce the OS being fast... the more you need to preload/keep in memory, the more likely there will be ramifications (load stutters, etc). I'm actually glad they figured out a way to give us folders at least.
And with the right backgrounds, I think the OS looks beautiful. I realize it looks pretty rough with the default background and some unorganized skittles, but once I put some time into it I love how my Vita looks and how amazingly the OS handles (flipping from top page to bottom page, then launching a game, then flipping to a browser, back to game, then back to first screen to open trophy app, etc). It's a shame it gets such a bad rap.
