This isn't entirely abstract either, most the sites that would hire out something like this would make that money back in a couple days if he was able to bump conversions up even slightly.
I also know quite a few solo founders with a technical background who have pretty shitty landing pages, even though they know (technically) how to build one and/or extended one from themeforest. They just forget about white space, proper padding and stuff, but hesitate to hire a designer for a day.
I'm looking at the before and after example, and there are just a few words changed, previous headlines enlarged and colored, and a call to action at the very bottom. Yes, those are positive changes, but for $1,000 I'm expecting someone to bring far more to the table than a few minor tweaks. If you're asking for a premium price, I'm expecting a premium service.
It provides more style options than designmodo's and fewer components, but I think they are both great options.