Themes are more important than just their looks. They tend to impact functionality too.
TraditionalHumanBlue (and TraditionaHuman [Orange]) display overlay scroll bars when used by caja root. Human displays overlay scroll bars in both normal and root. This is the singular disappointment with the Human theme in my opinion.
Selecting Human results as expected, Human is highlighted when next opening Appearance Preferences.
TraditionalOK displays wide gaps between a few directories (Calibre Library,.gnome2_private, moonchild productions) in Tree View under Home. Only moonchild productions stays widely separated after clicking on it, the others get closer. Perhaps this is because of a space between moonchild and productions?
One of my custom themes has Clearlooks-Phenix control, Human window border, Ubuntu-Mono-Light icons and DMZ_White pointer. No tree view gaps. Works as regular and as root.
Clearlooks-Phenix controls, border and (edited) Ubuntu-Mono-Light icons and DMZ (white) pointer looks good. "Custom" disappears after reboot and Clearlooks-Phenix is highlighted. I also made a custom selection called clearlooks-phenix-try which also highlights. Works. Edit files in /usr/share/themes/Clearlooks-Phenix/
index-theme. IconTheme=ubuntu-mono-light, CursorTheme=DMZ-White,
metacity-1/metacity-theme-1.xml. lines 14 thru 18, changed values from 4 to 6 for thicker borders to grab.
gtk-3.0/gtk-widgets.css. Used gtk_warning.txt to change 12 values throughout to avoid gtk warnings seen in synaptic.
Ambiant-MATE has gaps but otherwise looks acceptable.
I will now use themes that I've edited to include my choice of icons and pointer and stay away from differing borders. Right now, that theme is Clearlooks-Phenix with the additional edits described above.
Thanks for all your help gentlemen.