I’m not sure that is the case here - I would rewrite it as:
Most folks install EnOS theming as a starting point and then tweak for themselves.
There are a lot of things done ‘right’ in the official theming that new user might not know of their existence. Having sensible starting points (including whisker menu, having the panel set up reasonably etc) makes the whole thing MUCH easier.
IMHO of course 
after all - it cut at least 1/2 an hour off my first tweak set!
Really?? That is interesting, I would have never guessed. The last poll we had kde was the clear winner, and I think gnome was number 2, and of those who installed xfce, I don’t know how many instated it themed.
Anyway, I’m not here to argue, I’m just really surprised to hear. In that case, sure, teach others to theme.
vertex-dark, it rocks! IMHO and yes it’s AUR for those who are comfortable with that.
Even when (for speed reasons then!) I installed Offline, I then added in the EnOS theming as a starting point. When checking out the other DEs I would have done the same if there had been a theme for most of them!
I have no idea why KDE won’t do it for me - I guess it is partly the weird names for apps, partly the hangover from KDE back in version 2 and 3, and partly (rationalizing here) that it is so hard to track down WHAT in the theming gives you result A - as using any order for attacking a look that you might know from before leaves you nowhere!
Also - If Gnome hadn’t implemented its ugly and illogical take on CSD, I might have tried to use it instead - Gnome 2 was my second DE after Motif, and always worked well until it went to Gnome 3 - and avoided the ‘Windows Clone’ aspects of KDE (start panel at the bottom? no thanks…) Unity was a better be all round after that…
It is difficult to imagine a good structure for a theming tutorial, as the loooks can be so different… and the options so numerous - but I wouldn’t mind posting one if it existed, Actually, if you go through the XFCE doc pages, with some more images added it would pretty well do it for most.
KDE Start Panel at the bottom? You can change that straight away in Panel Edit. My Panel lives at the top.
True - NOW it is possible to move it around, or replace it, or modify it or ignore it! Remember, I developed my prejudices(!) back when it was supposed to be “Windows-like”. That was precisely what I didn’t want! It even had stupidities like close/min/max buttons stuck on the irght - the browser was partly a file manager and… too weird for me! Attempts to look at the newer versions haven’t gone well either - everything seems to need to be done differently, or be in the middle of being changed to do things differently and in the meantime unable to do them at all. Anyway - going too fat OT again…perhaps my greatest accomplishment!
You are certainly going back a bit with your KDE references. The first time I used it was with KDE 4 back in 2012 and you could move the panel to the top even back then, it was the first thing I did after an install on Mint because I had always used Macs previously and a bottom panel just feels wrong to me! 
Edit: In fact even to this day almost every bloody install I do, the first thing is get a panel/bar/whatever up at the top and ditch the bottom one. I blame it all on Microsoft and generations of ex-Windows users who need to get that filthy habit out of their distros once and for all! (rant 
)!!! 
As I have mentioned previously, I read from top left to bottom right, and that has influences my choices that way since the age of (maybe) 3 or 4, Just as I expect to exit a requester at the bottom right with an OK or Cancel or whatever…
Anyway - I know that KDE is much more flexible than it was - but every time I try it even recently I run into roadblocks that aren’t worth working through for me… I want to change something, but the first, or even second place I look to change it isn’t the right place! After a few months I’d probably be fine - but why fight that hard to end up more of less where I am?
It certainly is a fight to get it set up! The initial defaults don’t cut it for me. Ultimately I find it very rewarding but I get your point entirely. So your preferred DE/WM is?
When I first tried XFCE, I went to start making changes - and the settings were perfectly discoverable! I particularly liked having WM themes as well as main themes - and having dpi easily accessible as well as separate font size settings. Other than that, it just stays out of the way… oh - and the terminal is excellent for general use, with the drop-down mode and graphic capability.
Yeah I have XFCE on my laptop for all the reasons you have just mentioned. When I’m out & about the simplicity is nice.
For me, only setting up system sounds caused a little difficulty on Xfce, but it was resolved.
https://forum.xfce.org/viewtopic.php?id=9424
I’m fine with it anyway, I’ve tried and used and used several other desktop interfaces, but if I want stability, I always go back to Xfce.
Closed per OPs request.