I don't care much for looks as opposed to technical aspects of the bike. The 07-08 was a step backward for Kawi in a lot of ways. It was a decent enough bike, but it stepped away from what had always been Kawi's way of doing things prior to that. Up until the 07-08 Ninja came out, Kawi had always been known for focusing more on "street" bikes than the competition, with a stronger emphasis on more midrange-biased motors and more street-friendly ergonomics than the pure track-focus of competitors from the other manufacturers. With the 07-08 Kawi attempted to step away from that design philosophy in an attempt to focus completely on track superiority, and they failed miserably (at least when compared to competitors). What we were left with was a bike that wasn't as good of a pure track-scratcher as competitors, and wasn't as good of a street bike as prior generations.
Kawi made one more attempt at the "100% race focus" design philosophy with the 09-12 generation, which was a home run. With the 13+, they went back to the street bias of 06 and older Ninjas which had always been what set the Kawi brand apart from other manufacturers.