I would agree. The forum should be the strongest asset. vB was a home renovation gone bad. But people asked for a CMS, gallery and blog. People ask here also.
The exceptions are those who don't want bridges, want a uniform appearance and not capable for doing it themselves. I think an analogy could be Mac desktops. At least the older ones. Unlike PCs, you couldn't mix and match or build your own. Apple designed their products with specific components. Few exceptions and the results they worked out of the box for people who didn't want to tinker getting their computer to work. And yes, people add to 'garnish' rather that provide functionality. Not to take away from XenPorta, but that seems to be the first thing people add. Some sites it works, others not so much. For one of my sites, I need a CMS of some sort. My other, vBadvanced is fine as a splash page.
XF does hold it's own but please don't think that everyone likes it or it's the solution for everyone. Forum owners may like it over other products, but it's the members who use the software that count. For me anyway. Not everyone shares that forums are for their members, that's fine. To each their own.
I suggested xf to my car club when still in the beta stage. I'm still glad I did. Our members? They couldn't care less. vB, IPB, phpBB. It didn't matter. It's still taking them awhile to get used to it over vB. No one has said they love it.
