"horrendously restrictive" is a bit excessive dont you think?
The layouts are far better than I would come up with in a pinch, and how much formatting do you really need for most things.
A header, "this is my essay" some cool colors, a sidebar, and a text body for the bulk.
Ive got a bit of a clue, but Im not fully proficient in html, and rely on mozilla-composer to rough stuff in when I do the rare page. This is much better.