Punished? No, not really. That would imply that something negative is being forced on us as a result of not using Sheploo. It's all opinion really. One man's trash and all that.
The easiest way to get a decent face in any game I've played with a face creator is to find a preset that looks pretty close to what you want, then tweak it. I usually suck when trying to alter facial structure, and will usually only slightly tweak stuff like cheekbones or mouth height from the preset. But I will alter stuff like skin tone, hairstyle, hair color, scars, and so on. The result is a pretty good looking character. I almost always work off of the same preset for Shepard (since I almost exclusively play male), but can make decidedly different characters with it as a base.