> BTW, you mention companys as examples where different list-owners run
> lists in different ways. I dare to doubt that, because there will
> usually be corporate-identity issues and other policies requiring
> consistency. So I see few examples, where "easy templating and
> customization" are actually a major issue.

What these policies mean in practice is that you have a rulebook from
corporate headquarters that tells you what you can and cannot do, with a
reference version of all logotypes, official fonts for writing the company
name, etc. You can still have a lot of flexibility within this framework,
and most companies do customize extensively. Customer communication is
usually arranged by brand (Oldsmobile vs. Saab vs. Hummer), by product
category, by market segment (consumer, corporate, education, military,
medical, etc), by topic (support, promotions, alerts), by region... There
are many combinations, and this is why companies have sub-sites on the web,
and almost always different web sites for each brand. In addition, LISTSERV
is also used to communicate with shareholders, partners, resellers, etc.
Companies do not want all these diverse communities to see the same
messages. And even in the rare cases where they do, they can always
configure the messages identically for every list, for instance by putting
it in the SITE template.

  Eric