I think well structuredness is a great base to start with.
Standards shouldn't restrict your design, but hacks are the best way of filling any gaps when it does. They are there to help you overcome the gayness of browsers and should be needed less and less in the future. Spacer gifs are more about papering over the gaps in a lame design.
Fwiw, I think you're going about things the right way and the EIMC page proved this.
