Actually by now I order custom boards and have them assembled and soldered. Since I learned how to deal wih Eagle a new world opened up. Still the non standard Arduino layout implies that I can not just plug some shield into a bread board. This is in the end what I am complaining about. The Arduino itself is not the issue. I can always buy a boarduino.
However I wonder why the shield makers do not come up with a solution. If the shields would start to offer a secondary set of holes, such that they could be resoldered to fit a bread board they should extend their market by some percent. If they also could agree on a standard layout then this could create the required push. Unfortunately standardization is slow and tedious. So my hope in this direction is close to 0.
Udo