I have shot with 7Ds for almost 3 years now, and have a different view, and align more with Wes. If you have a perfectly working camera, and know how to set up the camera for success, and have a good set of post processing tools, the 7D actually does quite well, and is not quite as bad as you are making it sound.
My workflow is such:
0) Microadjust all lenses to any respective 7D I shoot (I have had 4 now)
1) Set up picture style and high ISO NR values so that they are ready as a starting point in DPP when I bring the raw in
2) I shoot to the right, ALL THE TIME, I never shoot to the left and bring up underexposed parts of images on purpose
3) I take the raw into DPP, make 3 or 4 little tweaks that can only be done in DPP and not in camera and export to JPG
4) I take the JPGs into CS3 and crop/compose accordingly
5) I run a batch action to clean up noise and sharpen and saturate on the JPGs
I have shot well over 10K images at ISO levels > 800 through these 4 years, shooting sporting events, band competition, drama, etc and have done very well with the results. I also make sure my shutter speeds are at least 1 / (1.6 x focal), but sometimes go for faster to guarantee no motion blur, because I do crop a bit, and I need less blur.
My results work well for my expectations and any clients (parents of kids, player families, etc). I understand others have higher expectations of their work, so what I consider acceptable may not match yours. However ISO 640 or less is all you get out of your 7D leads to either an issue with the camera, method of post processing, or your expectations are insanely strict.
