A good web designer is willing to work on a page for months and then not get any credit for his work.You cannot insist on putting you name all over the page to get credit for your work.
A good web designer has the capabilities to write the complicated javascripts and use CSS, but will often stick to making simple pages using basic HTML.Often time a simple line of text with font tags around it will look much better than a graphic you spent hours making.
If you insist on a fast download time as a priority on all of you pages then you are on the right track.
To be a good web designer you just have to be willing to spend so much time perfecting every little detail. You must do this to the point that you spent hours on a detail that will never be noticed. And that's
what makes it good, the detail enhanced the page so well that its presence is taken for granted by the users and not noticed.
A truly good web designer will never be fully appreciated.