i fully agree. The lightning, colors and shadows are unfinished now. What i currently implement is a static shadow system on the terrain which influences the environment. In addition to that i try to get the right settings which i apply to the models. Some dark look is by intention.
However this is a lot of work so i'll put this to the end because i really like to get my first demolevel running soon.
The screenshot shows how the static shadow will look like and how it will influence the environment (gras).
I do not have a better sky box images but this is something i am looking for.