Gantry has some great features and so do RocketTheme templates, but what I am seeing more and more is that modifications are now spread all over the file system and it's starting to get more confusing than just hand coding from scratch. Gantry is a double edged sword, you don't want to start swinging it around. The reason I chose RocketTheme was to make my life easier, but modifications are being hindered a bit by all the 'features' added to the base of themes. Most of which seem to be for nubs that install and forget. I see this most prominent in the css where there are about 30 css files to load one page. I don't see how this can be faster either? Isn't speed, efficiency, usability, looks the most important in somewhat close to that order? I frequently wait on my local server because gantry takes forever to load any change made in the admin panel.
Sorry I have no solution, I just wanted to share my growing discomfort in managing a RocketTheme gantry template. The biggest factors for me are file modification and speed.
Thanks for all the great templates and this wonderful forum where many answers are generated.