Have you tried moving "plasmarc" (not plasma-desktoprc or plasma-desktop-appletsrc) somewhere else? It can be found at ~/.kde4/share/config/

That didn't do anything either. FWIW that file was not re-created on reboot.
====EDIT
Although it was re-created when I went back into the System Settings and re-selected Helium as the theme. Originally the file was as follows:

Code: Select all

[$Version]
update_info=plasma_popupapplet_fix_groups.upd:PlasmaPopupAppletFixGroups2

[Theme]
name=Helium_opaque

[Theme-amarok]
name=Amarok-Mockup


After, the new file was just

Code: Select all

[Theme]
name=Helium_opaque


Unfortunately i'm out of ideas as to how to fix this - if clearing the Plasma theme configuration file and removing the local Plasma themes at share/apps/desktoptheme/ had no effect but it works under a new user i'm not sure what could be the problem.

After all these steps, you could try removing the Plasma theme cache again, although I doubt it would have any effect (make sure to do it outside of KDE).

Okay, no worries. I guess I'll file it as a bug then. Thank you for your help (again).

Seems like this has already been filed a month ago.

sparhawk wrote:Seems like this has already been filed a month ago.

Even so, nothing prevents you creating a "new" oxygen theme thus eliminating the need to rely on the customization option entirely.

Copy from /usr/share/kde4/apps/desktoptheme/default to the ~/.kde/share/apps/desktoptheme/, remembering to change the theme name in the .desktop file;
Example:

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[Desktop Entry]
Name=O2

Comment=A breath of fresh O2

X-KDE-PluginInfo-Author=The Oxygen Project
X-KDE-PluginInfo-Email=kde-artists@kde.org
X-KDE-PluginInfo-Name=default
X-KDE-PluginInfo-Version=0.9
X-KDE-PluginInfo-Website=http://plasma.kde.org

Now you can substitute/delete svgz images to your heart's content.

Nice one. Thanks for the hint. That works well.