Ya, I agree. There is nothing worse than a cluttered up webpage with no apparent pattern. What is sometimes even worse is a page that is too 'busy' or they have 3,000 animations and clickable graphics. Not only is it next to impossible to navigate, but it takes a while to figure out where all the links are.
I myself prefer sites with 3 sections: The Header, A side column that has all of the links in the site, that takes up about 25% of the page in width, and then a column that takes up 75% of the page with the information and text. Perhaps including a link to the homepage.
If you ask me, too many sites are cluttered. And, in my opinion, the sites easiest to navigate are the ones that I described above.
Sharpshoey