An old site that I used to frequent was all hand coded as well. It had a similar view to the "original" style here. But it would allow you to collapse threads.
This way you can have the compact look of UBB but can expand the threads on demand. One big benefit of the original style is the ability to see the reply "chain". But being able to collapse them will allow you to see more threads on a single page, and not have to require actually clicking on the link to see them.
