component install --out dir, though there's little reason to change this, it's just a directory name, that's like complaining about the ugly node_modules. Having no registry is dramatically better for several reasons:

• github is more robust
• github is faster (tarballs / git just slow things down...)
• github is easy to mimic for internal private "registries"
• using the "username/project" model prevents stupid names like seaport
• using this model removes all ambiguity about where a package came from

I agree with the build step sucking, that's definitely a personal subjective thing, I'd hate to every have to write AMD-style code