Do you shoot RAW format photos? If so, I'd try looking at your luminance curve/tone histogram/whatever your software calls it. Any photo with a lot of sky and a lot of dark stuff tends to leave the dark stuff too dark - with a histogram tool, just applying to the whole photo, you should be able to brighten up the dark stuff, revealing more detail, without doing too much harm to the sky. Then your classic framing will be better rewarded.
Or take an entirely different approach and work out when the sun will be in the best position to light up the scene naturally.
Monopods (or indeed tripods, or even just bracing against walls) matched with slower speeds might also reveal more detail.
