I think everyone gets inspiration from somewhere we all acquire a style from our own environment though free templates are useful they come into their element when you have a large collection allowing you to mix and match and create something new out of the many parts (essentially what almost all design firms will do, start with a generic and add to it).

Thus free templates are great, but even better when used correctly, however spending £5k on a website that is perfect will only result in hundreds of copies or variations somewhere along the lines, an easy example is the almost standardised method that webhosting packages are displayed (big table with ticks/crosses )