Wow. I did not expect this much response. I think it says a lot for the community and the passion behind Pw.
As I mentioned, I am very new to Pw so it is possible that once I get to know it better I will agree that a template language is completely unnecessary. Also, I have no problems with it being a module that can be loaded if needed. I certainly don't think it needs to be in the core. So, if there are modules that already exist then I am satisfied. For example, I hate TinyMCE is totally screws up my code. So, I don't use it, but it is there for those that want to. That is one of the things that I see with Pw that I like.
Thanks for all the feedback and comments!
Now, for my own enlightenment, I am interested in where you all draw the line between Design and Development. In my current situation, my designer knows HTML and CSS (he obviously knows design too). So, in my thinking, that is the demarkation point. I should not need a copy of Photoshop to develop and he should not need to load debugging tools, etc to design. He provides clean HTML/CSS and I fill the templates with data. That is why I feel it is important that the designer can modify the templates and not just hand them off to me to implement.
The user is expected to handle the data so why are we keeping the designer away? Is this not a 3-way partnership? I know that some of you are one-man shops and totally capable of doing it all, but I am trying to understand this from a small team perspective. I have done the last few sites in MODX Revolution and the designer was fine with being able to modify the templates and leave all PHP to me. If he needed something specific, he could ask and the same for me. The user just entered the content. It seemed to work well and balance out the work.
My musings... I will probably look back on this message and laugh at my Pw naivety. It's all good and thanks again for being so responsive and open.
Anthony