Is there any estimate for mybb 1.9?

[Serpius]

That is the problem, the default theme is a headache to look at, feels like the early 2000s so one does not have a choice but to chose a custom theme, the options available are slim so we tend to hire someone, the problem is it's $30 - $80 bucks everytime something changes due to the weird way that mybb themes works.

phpBB's theme feels better and more standardized to me, I mean I know my way around front-end quite well and I am very comfortable with PHP (I am pragmatic not OOP.), point is whenever I attempt to touch a mybb theme it feels like I suddenly don't know shiat.

Would've been nice if the default theme was something like vanilla Bootstrap 4... and the files contained in a folder so I can fire up phpStorm or heck even brackets, but somehow the theme is a weird XML sheet and edits are done in the adminCP... it's terrible.

Are you aware of the fact that when 1.9.xx release comes out around November/December that it will have a responsive theme?

If you truly LOVE phpBB, then why are you here? No one is holding a gun to your head and forcing you to use MyBB. 

I've used phpBB before and I hated its limitations and lack of developer support. 

I'm not going to deep details of what I didn't like about phpBB, but the fact remains (at least for me) is that MyBB does offer far more flexibility than phpBB does.