How to Choose a Wordpress Theme

Hi all! I've been here for a month or so now, and I was looking to make my website look better, so started playing around with the appearance of my theme (Herbal lite). I found that I could not make it look like the demo version - it has a nice slider with three rotating images and a feature article on the homepage.
I then realised that I would have to buy the full version of the theme to actually get this option, so I was a bit annoyed to be honest. I didn't realise that you have like a "lite" version where it's really basic, and then you have to pay for the full version to make it look professional.
My website doesn't look too bad, but the homepage is just a list of my posts. It doesn't look great to be honest.
I guess I would like to know what others do in regards to their wordpress themes - in case i'm missing something here - I haven't used wordpress before, just used others like Wix etc.
Thanks for reading!
Michelle :)
I understand the frustration with buying the "lite" version. It took me about 3 months to find a theme I was happy with. I bought a couple of "lite" versions that I got my money back on. Every time I added a couple more posts to my website I wouldn't like the one l had chosen. I wanted pics for my website that were already taken by someone else. MY DAUGHTER said go to Google search, type free domain, then what kind of pic I wanted.It took me awhile, but that's what I did. I still made sure I wasn't charged for the pics. I can live with my website now. Some pics I took, others were selected. Here's my site if you want to look https://cook2connect.com I'm not done with training, but feel like my website is done except for some extras.
If you are just starting out and need some help choosing the correct theme then I want to suggest that you follow the training that Mel has started putting together. It is a 4 part series. Part 1 was posted just a couple of days ago. All About Themes: Part 1 - Layouts All the best,
Brian
I don't think looks are that important unless it is really horrible