It's actually quite easy to XML patch over any skin drawable you want to change, the BusyBox developer wrote an app called Metamorph that gives you fine point control over ugly ROMs. Not really applicable to a stock device for the most part but if you try out an imperfect theme I see where it might be useful. I made the best of a cheap LG for quite a while with that.
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"Standing on a well-chilled cinder, we see the fading of the suns, and try to recall the vanished brilliance of the origin of the worlds."
-Georges Lemaitre
"I fly through hyperspace, in my green computer interface"
-Gem Tos