WordPress - Template or Custom code?

Calling on WordPress designers and developers - Would you share with me tools and methods you like to use when designing websites for clients? I have used the Divi template in the past, but like many templates, I find they yield sites that all look the same - boxy, big background images and lots of white space. Not bad principles, but I find myself constrained as a designer, and wonder of there are more flexible templates out there or do some of you just make your own WordPress themes from scratch? Or is coding by hand prohibitive, and you just go with a template anyway? Wondering if there's an industry trend along these lines.

Thanks!
Steve