MVC pattern?

I am really mad. I tried to make my own theme. But it is almost impossible! Just pure CSS is insufficient. As I have PHP knowledge, I tried to search for source of HTML elements. I don't know why there are so many common_* functions. I tried to make SPAN + text inside label and it took me 1 hour to figure out there is function common_text. This is OK now as I browsed source... But I want for example switch nav_views menu over status_form because of layout or make content div consisting from left & right panel, but I can't. nav_views are part of functions views_menu, settings_menu etc and it is impossible to track it over 4+ different files to change. It is even imposible to track where are those functions called. I propose some MVC like Smarty. I use it in my projects, it is really fast(especially with high performance sites + caching like this), totally simple and theme making will be divine with templates. Just some passing of variables and Smarty works. Please, think about it. Thank you.