I am thinking maybe the reason i got hacked is due to using a cracked version of the ctr theme- either cos it directly had the malicious scripts in there or just because it was outdated and thus vulnerable to attack.

So while Im on a budget is a high ctr theme really necesary?

I know we've already had 25-30% ctr just using the 2010 theme due to a god keyword so I'm guessing that means potentially it could do just the same on other kws.

Thoughts?

It would be better not to have to worry about that for a bit while I just concentrate on getting my sites back up, secure and up-to-date with default settings.

So are high ctr themes considered absolute essentials or just a bells and whistles type deal to add as garnish once it can be easily afforded?

In my opinion (I could be wrong) but CTR is more dependent on commercial value of the keyword than the actual theme.

For example if you have an adsense site about cameras that show ads for the particular models of camera, you are going to have a high CTR as opposed to say you had a site about weight loss that showed general ads related to weight loss.

I currently manage about 50 adsense sites with the same theme, and the CTR varies on all of them with the higher rates coming from product centered sites rather than the more general ones.

There are decent free adsense themes (I'm assuming you use wordpress) like the "Heatmap Theme" that is pretty good (though it is kind of ugly).

Assuming you don't have absolute horrible adsense placement, I believe this to be true. I would be curious to hear others thoughts though.