What I'm saying is that it is very easy for you to post on a forum and point out this and that, but if you would've spend some more time on improving your pool I don't see any reason why your pool should not be in the top 3. The way I see it Slush, Kano, and your pool are the only 3 pools that are actually friends of bitcoin. The "good guy" pools need to work on their marketing and end user experience if they want to compete with the mega Chinese pools.
Oh wow is Eligius still up and running? It's been a long time since I used to mine there.
The technically savvy among miners will get on board in spite of the lack of those features you mentioned, but the majority of miners like some decent stats page and other such niceties or dare I say "luxuries". It would be nice to attract some of these sheep miners. Sheep need to be guided so they don't wonder into the stomping grounds of the big bad wolf.
Send me a PM when you get a chance. If there is some help I can send your way to cover the costs of a nicer interface for the pool I'll see what I can do.