Yes, photos that I physically take with the phone are saved to the camera. But If I find a photo online, or on facebook, or my dropbox, or anywhere else, the long press give me the ability to share the photo, but not download it to my gallery. In ios, you just tap any photo, anywhere, and you can save it to your gallery. On my HTC, I can't even save a photo that I sent myself in a chat or an email.
Ok, re: photo online, that may be a function of the browser. I am using Opera mini, I just pulled up a website, saw a pic, held my finger on it, and it gave me the option to save.
Dropbox, I went to a pic and tapped it open, the 3 dots, one over the other, gave me many options, one was save to sd card.
In email or chat, I long press, not just tap, the photo and it gives me the option to save it.
In quickpic, which is what I use mostly, I long press, and have all sorts of options.
You are really making me think, lol, whatever I do with this stuff, I do almost without thinking anymore, basically like you did with what you are used to.
I have had an Ipod touch, 1st and 2nd gen, but I mainly used them to listen to music.
Other peeps will have suggestions and comments as well, as you ask.