Well this is becoming ridiculous. 2.1 has been out for 3 months now and Sprint still cant get it up and running while devs from SDX and XDA have had ROMs for weeks. By the time we ever see 2.1, it will be old news and 2.5 will already be here or well on its way. That means we will be forced to buy a new phone to get it, Sprint sure as hell wont be upgrading to it anytime soon. I just bought this Hero in Jan, its not even 3 months old.
Unless Google does something fast to streamline Android so all carriers are running current versions, more people like me will just get more fed up and leave Android. Say what you will about Apple being control freaks but at least they know how to run sh*t and 4.0 is going to offer some nice improvements. Android has the potential to be great, but its a giant mess right now and I am about done with it.
Let me preface this by saying, I mean no disrespect whatsoever by my comments here, and I hope you don't take offense.
I, like you, and like pretty much everyone else here is tired of the "waiting game" for 2.1. If I'm not mistaken, you, like myself refuse to root the phone for one reason or another. Personally, I'm not comfortable doing it, and after reading up on all the threads and whatnot regarding the different ROM versions floating around out there, it seems like its more work than I have time for to put forth in order to get everything working. Workaround this, patch that, install and wipe, install and wipe. I'm not putting down rooting, it's just not for me. I've talked myself in and out of doing it about 20 times, and have settled on not doing it, much like yourself (if I'm correct from some of your earlier posts).
That being said, I have to disagree with your comment on people getting fed up with the waiting and leaving the carrier for someone who updates more frequently. I think if you were to step back and look at the big picture (and this is true for pretty much everything), of the entire Hero owning community, a pretty generous estimate of 3% actually understand that the phone is "upgradable". Sure, everyone on this site knows what's going on, but your typical consumer who walks into Sprint or Best Buy or Radio Shack and purchases the Hero (or 99% of any smartphone) only buys it because it's "Cool" or "cutting edge". Once the money exchanges hands, the consumer walks out of the store and opens the box, that's the end of their "tinkering" with the phone. So, based on the estimate, that's 97% of people who own the phone who have no idea what Android 2.1 is. My guess is that if you were to ask a Hero owner what version of Android they have, they'd look at you as if you had 2 heads. The only phone that people truly have any clue as to it's "upgradable state" is going to be the iPhone, and that's simply because everytime they do something like an OS upgrade, it's a spectacle and makes news.
Again, I mean no disrespect and I hope you don't take it wrong.
On another note, and this is just my guess, with the "leak" of 2.1 out and fairly full functioning, I would guess it's pretty close to being released. Again, I have no knowlege of anything, and my guess is as good as anybody's, but I'm assuming by the end of the month is a good assumption. I remember when the Rev A/GPS ROM upgrade for the HTC Touch was "leaked", the official was dropped 1 week later.
hahaha, just teasing... but really... enough already with the 2.x diatribe... It's so worn out.
Sprint is by far THE most cost effective provider out there. I got rid of my Palm Pre because it gave me nothing but problems. 
