For me, the lack of esthetics reaches a much higher order of magnitude when they are up on a tall tower.  I'm pretty sure my distant neighbors would share that sentiment if I were to put up a tower right in the  middle of their view.

In my location, there is plenty of good consistent wind right at the ground, as it rises up the western face of the mountain, right at me.  It is no-doubt turbulent air that close to the ground.  My understanding is that VAWTs deal with that better than HAWTs.

I also like the tendency toward less noise from VAWTs (due I guess mainly to the slower rotational speeds).

There are places on my property where I can place a row of medium sized VAWT's and have them get lots of wind, but be virtually invisible from the inhabited part of my land and not blocking anyone's view.

So, that's my story and I'm sticking to it.