I am hoping for a modern slick design similar to the new platforms out there such as www.Flarum.org or www.Discourse.org or Nodebb.org, these ones have the latest technologies and the most modern look which I like very much. Is it possible accomplish these types of designs?

Flarum is nice looking, it loads very slow and there are no trees in the discussion like in MLF.
Do we compare apples with strawberries ?