I guess it's just what you get used to I guess. I have a pattern to it all. a Social page, a work schedule page, home page with my news, bookmarks page (I just added a Droid forum and androidforum apps on the bookmark page below the widget) and a multimedia page.
Some don't like the clutter, though.... I understand. Some want bare minimum. I love some widgets.
Customized icons use Desktop Visualizer and I have random FSU themed pictures downloaded from the inet and saved on the SD card.
Some of the banners open up a folder containing general apps within that them. I simply use 'App Categories' and Desktop Visualizer together. For example, the Multimedia banner, opens up a folder that contains arcMedia, iheartradio, Pandora, rockPlayer, Slacker, TV Flash and Ustream
the small icons on the clock page is using More icons app.
I have the dock below also taking advantage of placing a specific folder from App Categories on there. I have a market folder that opens up my stock market, app-brain, and one other, along with my barcode scanners. My camera folder on the dock, opens all my camera/video apps.