What is the best out-of-the-box optimized WordPress Theme?

[Aqua]

I've reviewed other answers on this forum and searched the web. Still looking for a good answer that's actually specific and can explain why. I've looked at

1. studiopress.com themes,
2. pagelines.com which I love but doesn't appear to have much optimization out of the box,
3. http://themeforest.net/item/udesign-wordpress-theme/253220
4. http://www.vklabx.com/wordpress-themes/wordpress-theme-ad-flex-niche.php

PS - not looking for answers that involve the use of SEO plugins, but if there's a theme you know of that takes minimal editing to improve optimization I'd be interested as well.

Thanks in advance, hope this can help someone else as well

[ResslerMotors]

Edited*

Robert has a much better answer.

[RobertFisher]

I can speak to this from what my developers say. I personally like StudioPress and have always felt it was a quality set of themes that provided a lot of what clients want in look and at the same time allowed us to personalize it to the degree that made it perfect.

Our lead developer who is a bright guy (prior to us he was a huge Drupal developer, etc. One a national award for a television station site from ABC) likes themeforest. From the point of view of additional coding our interns who are seniors in digital media at a university are able to work with it as well. So, I can't tell you from a pure code point of view, but as being the guy who says yes or no and who listens to the ones who get the job done, I would have to say we lean about 30 studiopress and 70 themeforest.

Hope it helps,

[JaredBroker]

I love Thesis and it's all I use.

If it's good enough for Matt Cutts and Search Engine Land, it's good enough for me!

[Aqua]

Thanks for the answer Robert! I use ThemeForest for themes from time to time, but they are a market place and don't have SEO standards since their sites are designed by individuals. I appreciate the response though and I'm definitely looking at using StudioPress.

[Aqua]

Thanks Jared. Do you have a technical perspective as to why it's better? I'm intrigued and will be reading more on Thesis. Thank you!

[JaredBroker]

Mainly it is site structure plus speed.  It does have quite a few  features, so when you use an SEO plugin, there may be some overlapping features to keep an eye out for.