Certainly not ugly. Making maps is one of the primary tasks of a GIS, so they need to be able to do a good job of it.
They aren't graphics editors though and so they aren't much for non-functional curlicues and filters and whatnot. Where I thought you might find it useful would be in managing all your different data sets as it sounds like you have more data than can reasonably fit on a single map. You could then export to SVG or PDF and load into Inkscape for final touches.
I used QGIS for laying out and projecting the features in this map: http://www.cartographersguild.com/al...chmentid=36691
And I used it for the majority of the graphical work in this map: http://www.cartographersguild.com/al...chmentid=43675
Both were finished off in Inkscape.

