Hi again all,
after giving it some thought (especially after Randy’s post) I came to the conclusion that it might be that the css or non-frontpage is the way to go and I agree since I’d surely trade places with someone who knows dreamweaver like I know frontpage.
that said from a SE pov it would IMHO make less sense to favor those sites designed by someone more knowledgeable in site design … because while that site might look better, be designed better … unless the site was professionally designed then it is quite likely the person with the knowledge you are seeking … would use frontpage or something similar to make their site. And actually less-likely they would hand code since their expertise is in the area of what you’re seeking and not web design (unless you’re looking for web design).
an example being if you wanted to learn basketball and google designed one site and Mike Jordan designed the other … well it is likely Mike’s site won’t look as fancy or have all the css stuff … but we all know which site we’d choose to learn from don’t we?