Within Linux world there are basically two camps - the dominant one tends to be the CLI brigade. These folks are accustomed to doing most of their computing tasks via the CLI - which means they are very keyboard-centric. The other camp - growing in size as more folk migrate from MS Windows - are the GUI brigade. They do much of their computing with a mouse and are instinctively mouse-centric [and maybe keyboard-phobic too].
What the CLI brigade fail frequently to understand is the concerns of the GUI brigade. In Linux forums the terminal emulator question is a classic example of this. The CLI brigade's response to such questions are therefore frequently bemused often unhelpful. So for the GUI brigade here is the full monty.
For the CLI brigade most of the light-weight default emulators will suffice - aterm, rxvt, urxvt, etc. They have basic functionality and most of what they want to accomplish can be achieved via keystrokes. They also don't mind too much if they have an ugly terminal. Functionality is what counts to the CLI folk bless 'em.
For the GUI brigade who want familiar mouse functionality such as right-click context menu, customisability such as font change, background colour, transparency, cut-and-paste via the context menu, then one or several of the following:
Lxterminal, Sakura, Evilvte, gnome-terminal, Terminal [xfce] all offer such functionality.
Cautionary Note: The more functional your emulator the more dependencies it will pull in depending on your setup. There is a price to pay for that prettiness!
Crunchbang Linux now use Terminator as their default - based on gnome-terminal - which has some interesting functionality such as multiple terminals open in a grid etc. It's a sort of terminal emulator Shangi-la...