I agree with you to a point. You may have the best looking site on the web but if no one can find you, who cares? When one thinks of SEO what does one think of? keywords, link popularity, keyword density? SEO has to be in your mind from concept to final outcome. Content to the visitor is not the same as content to what the bot can see and in what order the bot sees it. My thinking is SEO for the most part is in the hands of the site builder. If one builds a site and the first 100 lines are java script and the first real content is over half way down the page as the bot sees, it is a waste as well.
Eyecatching design important, integrated approach even more important, building a page with SEO in mind from the very concept to final outcome - priceless..