Hi Eric,
I have been following the threads here and at Mac Themes regarding your ReBirth Theme.
I haven't yet used your theme - I'm still on Snow Leopard because of the cost of upgrading my professional applications - but your theme looks excellent and it removed one roadblock to upgrading. On Snow Leopard I use SnowTunes and your theme would help me in the same way by removing the more garish elements of Lion's interface.
I do understand your frustration with feedback. As an artist I release a free image (for use as a computer wallpaper) every month. I announce these images here on Deviant Art, on Facebook, on Twitter, on Mac Themes and on certain LinkedIn groups. Yet, after around a year of releasing these images and thousands of downloads, I have less than 100 comments. Does that make me want to stop? Not really, as I make the images for myself as much as anyone else.
In terms of what you create, my suggestion would be to release "in progress" images on the Mac Themes "Mac Critique & WIP" forum - the whole purpose of that group is for people to comment and critique work in progress. If you check it you will see far more comments than the general Release forum.
hope that helps,
Best,
Garry