I don't actually work in the design part of the company, just occasionally implementing UX designs, but I've frequently been in the client meetings, and the point you make here cannot be overstated. This is the prime motivator of most clients when presented with a "templated" website - they want theirs to look different enough not to be recognized as the template. They want this so much they will push for sub-optimal UX, just for the sake of differentiation. I honestly don't blame them, as our templates, just as most templates, produce recognizable results - pretty much same site, different colors and logo.

All that being said, for more than 3/4 of them, they change their mind pretty quick when they find out the price difference between going with the templates or having custom UX developed. And this is just with the farmed out UX people who are cheap - not our good designers who the big customers use. Templates are good 'cause they let the little guy at least have the form and functionality of the big guys as long as they can tolerate they're essentially a row house.

I don't disagree with you, but there are a lot of companies (mine included) that don't care if they stand out. I need a website so people believe I'm a real company; as a place to convey basic information about our product and team; and as a place to provide information on how to get in touch. It's a chore to make it and I'm happy to just phone it in.

yeah, I'm sure people that have no idea how to build a website are really good at making their website stand out, right?

I work on a competitor website builder and I can tell you that this is definitely not the case. they'll leave in the default helper text we provide half the time.