I think the front page is a pretty awesome image. The first time I saw it I spent a few nice minutes savoring every little part of it.
That said, and eye candy aside, I think that the direction the Nexus has right now as a community, with the EU tag and the growing outlook of reliable information, research and analysis, maybe makes the front page incomplete or a little obsolete. Not that I think that we require suggesting science in the front page, but looking at the forum contents I kind of miss it. If we want it to reflect what's inside, that is.
And for me it's not a matter of respectability... very respectable books or movies have used sensationalist covers and posters, not necessarily agreeing with their content, to capture people's attention or for simple artistic sake. But most people that sees the image will be sold already because they come looking for information they know they can find, or to share something they need to share, so it would make more sense to me if the picture was also illustrating one essential main line of the Nexus such as research, chemistry or botany. That might also contribute a little to correctly set the mind of new users before they start posting.
I think this site is about DMT/Psychedelics, not about Hyperspace, if you know what I mean.
But it's true that many people (including me) bypass it, so maybe we can afford to keep the eye candy even if it is not the ideal cover imo, practically speaking.