I'm really pleased the templates use a Joomla-style override scheme allowing designers to do bespoke comment designs. The only issue is that the code in them is a bit "spaghetti-code" style (no offense!) and somewhat of a headache to tweak...
I've "untangled" a couple of them for the sight I'm building now...see attachments...
Note, tpl_tree.php & tpl_form.php should work exactly as the originals - with all the features available via the settings. I've just regrouped things so the PHP and HTML are less entangled...
For tpl_comment.php however, I began some custom mods for my site prior to having the idea to untangle it first. So there maybe a few features (ie from the settings) that aren't engaged, and a few css classes which are different. On the plus side however, I've added a couple of new features via the template's code:
- A variable to set custom size for gravatar images
- Default avatar to pull from the tmpl overrides in the site's template folder
- Some additional classes to highlight top comments and hide those below a certain threshold
Note, the ajax all still works as expected.
I'm hoping for a bit of group effort in doing the other tpl_*.php files in a similar style??

Gratefully,
HKS