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A little history on me and UI Skinning:
I'm not a game systems guy, I work on the tools. The content tools that allow people to build quests, put monsters in the world, and terraform the landscape. In 2005, I was really concerned with how LOTRO's UI was shaping up and I took a leave of absence from my current job to work on the UI with other (more talented than me) people. I brought you floaty text, chat and IM tab improvements, the radar and map, and vitals updates (to name a few.)
After the year was up, I transitioned back into the job I am in now, the manager for the Live, Support, and Tools team. This means that my team is called whenever the servers crash (yes, sometimes at 2am), we debug and triage the problems and code the solutions. We aren't game specific and we handle both DDO and LOTRO server maintenance. We don't do game code.
Before LOTRO launched, I was playing a lot of WoW and I was amazed at the level of customization their client allowed and I wondered how much of our UI could be modified. It turned out it wasn't a lot - the UI system as it exists today is fairly similar (but updated with functionality) as the AC2 engine. Basic investigation showed me that we could replace graphics fairly easily.
I was on a trip to a brewery in Maine at some point in 2006 (playing hookie from work) when I essentially designed the whole skinning system as it exists today. I think it took me a week to shoehorn the system into the existing UI (on my own time, mind you). Re-positioning UI elements came a few weeks later - to my chagrin this still doesn't work as intended. So UI skinning is essentially a "one man show" from a man who's job is something else. I get to work on skinning when I get the chance (instead I'm writing this post! ... kidding...)
Other people have mentioned it, but we are working on a new UI system that I can't talk too much about. So you have the struggle between devoting resources to a newer cooler system and supporting and adding functionality to the old system.
Posting on this board about your feelings on the UI probably aren't going to change the course of the Titanic, but posting (well thought out, articulate) icebergs on the official message boards might get you somewhere (to continue the metaphor). Remember, I'm not officially attached to the LOTRO project, so you need to convince those developers that improving the older UI is worthwhile.
-P
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