I'm thinking that if I'm going to target a wider audience (other than just a few developers), then I might have to do something more than just bare minimum theming (even if there is a minimalistic appeal to it).
Then again, quite a few more mainstream themes have been moving towards minimalism these days.
Email subscriptions are one possible option but it would take a fair bit more complexity, particularly to reduce the probability of a mail provider deciding to just toss the thing in spam. Would readers regularly check emails?