• Less and newer CSS - and only the 1-3 the designer/developer specifies (instead of 6-16),
• Fewer JS files (3-6 instead of 6-24),
• using HTML5 if we so desire, 
• etc...

It really is important...It's what makes DNN sites seem sluggish, it limits designer's freedom, etc.

• If you open www.dotnetnuke.com in FireFox, use YSlow and look at the statisctics, you'll get an idea of what I'm after.  There are:
  • 13 CSS requests
  • 21 JS requests
  • 6 XMLHttpRequests
  • ...94 total requests
• A number of those CSS and JS requests are inserted by DotNetNuke.

So, the problem is really control.  As the designer/developer/whatever, I'd like to be in control of what CSS and JS files are loaded.  If I don't need them, I don't want them loaded.  I'd like to be able to combine and minify them.

Ideally there would be:

• css - A way to register your CSS files and have them automatically combined and minified - maybe something like SquishIt.
• js - Same with JS files - but in addition, we need to be able to specify whether the JS is loaded in:
  • the header
    or
  • the end of the page

The challenge with HTML5 is having this old baggage being loaded.

Thanks for the pointer to the DNNGarden Example.  Here's a pointer to a DotNetNukeHTML5BoilerPlate version by Matt Jura.

Thanks Timo - The 40FINGERS Style Helper Skin looks great!

But on the CSS - isn't the minimum is actually 4 - default.css, portal.css, skin.css and container.css - and the skinner can add more (but I don't think the skin can cause less than 4 css files to be used).  Yes, you can go in and delete or empty files (or use a tool like yours).  But many users would not be comfortable with deleting files and it's out of the skinners control - so DNN really should do this out-of-the-box.  Ideally, the user should be able to choose a skin and have it include only what it needs.

So, maybe the CSS solution is to include your helper in the default distribution - and a menu option to configure it?