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I enjoy a well formatted book/article/text. Formatting and typography have a great impact on my "reading experience."
However, those two elements do not, in and of themselves, comprise the whole of said experience. If I am reading Shakespeare's plays, formatted in paragraphs, without respect to the iambic pentameter therein, is the great bard somehow diminished? If I read perfectly formatted drivel, is it less, erm, "drivellous?"
I realize that a poorly formatted text taxing. For instance, I have seen Bibles with the very beautiful King James translation for the text, but the publishers have chosen to ignore the fact that poetry and song should be formatted differently from prose.
One thing SmashWords, Amazon and B&N are doing right, imho, is to allow free samples before purchase. That allows me to view a purchase before buying, just as I can in a brick and mortar bookstore. B&N also offers an added advantage if I take a Nook to one of their stores, allowing me an even greater glimpse.
E-book publishing is still in its infancy. As with the paper book printing industry, there are artisans crafting beautiful works that are as wonderful to look at as they are to read. I don't know if there are any groups as organized as Roycrafters guild (look it up, if you don't know), but individuals possessing a sense of textual style and grace are working, slavishly coding over a hot diode at all hours of the day. Some of them post their works here.
They have convinced me of some of the possibilities and opportunities in ebooks, and even inspired me to attempt renewing and renovating my old HTML chops, and to take a stab at making an e-book of two.
As for nay-sayers, history is filled with quotes from learned men of science declaring human flight to be impossible, along with travelling at speeds greater than 30 mph, the impossibility of practical computers, and running the 4-minute mile.
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