I understand where you're coming from and I'm there with you when it comes to video calling. I think I know why a front facing camera hasn't been included though. In most places I've been, Verizon speed are typically about 1.5Mbps and about .5Mbps up (obviously your experience may vary).
Have you ever tried doing a video chat at speeds like that? I have, and tbh, it's pretty darn crappy... and that is on a hardwired line hooked into my computer. Just think about trying to do that on a smartphone... obviously they aren't as quick on the hardware side as most of today's computers and you also are trying to utilize a connection that isn't as reliable as a hardwired line.
The point is that I believe Verizon knows that allowing video chat over its 3G network will disappoint a lot of people and probably put undue strain on the network. It makes sense to reserve this for the LTE network which will have speeds that will easily handle this.
Take a look at the iPhone 4G. I'm willing to bet that they'll eventually enable video calling over AT&Ts 4G network, but until then, I'll bet they continue to limit it to over Wifi.