gm991,
I read a fair bit of this thread, but not all of it.
What I sticks out most (in my mind) is that you complain vociferously about your phone, and also refuse to root it. That is close to saying "I'd rather complain than do anything about it." Granted, if you think your phone isn't working in a "factory" state, there are reasons to complain - but if something is wrong with "factory", then the only option which is available to you is "non-factory" - and you are refusing to take steps in that direction.
It is incredibly difficult to have any objective information about what % of people have troubles with their phone, for a variety of reasons:
- on forums, the people who show up are either enthusiasts or people with problems; so the sampling isn't random; there's a whole group of people in the middle who neither experience any problems or are bothered enough by them to report them. The really diligent enthusiasts tend to not have any troubles because they (a) have a better understanding of the way their phone works, and (b) self-modify their behaviors in order to stay out of trouble.
- for smartphones in particular, because they are capable of a lot of behaviors, lack of familiarity or knowledge about the device often convinces the end user that "something is wrong" with the device, when in fact the user simply does not understand how the device works. (A classic example is a user who showed up here complaining how "horrible" it was that when he deleted his call logs completely, "a list of contacts showed up in the call log sorted in alphabetical order!" - heh, one man's feature is another's bug)
- for Android phones in particular, it is quite easy for the user to bugger their phone with a mish-mash of apps loaded from the marketplace, as Google filters essentially no apps Users coming from a closed phone / dumbphone experience often expect "the phone should just work flawlessly no matter what I do". That is clearly a misplaced expectation. Those folks should have chosen the (Fascist) iPhone app marketplace instead.
- Variation in user behavior. An example might be - I don't use the Exchange client functionality; for all I know, it is a hideous POS; but because I never use it, it can't be a problem for me. So even if every Eris user alive shared exactly one phone, every one of them would have a different opinion about the phone, according to their individual experience and predilictions.
- Its a fact of life (which has nothing to do with phones), that people love to complain. About everything. I don't know why; perhaps it gives them a sense of superiority or a sense of control.
Note that I am not saying any of these things about you, as I don't know you; but point out why subjective and non-random data can produce an appearance which is different from the "average" experience.
I guess I'm one of the lucky ones - my phone has worked "flawlessly" for me on 1.5, flawlessly on OTA 2.1, and quite well as a rooted phone (many of the ROMs have outright flaws). But as they say, "the harder I worked, the luckier I got".
I will say that there are two things that HTC/VZW should have changed right out of the box, and this would have changed a lot of people's impressions about the phone:
1) The Android process trimmer was configured to kick in too late. The phone does act like a complete dog when it sits at 25-30 Mb free memory. And all you have to do to get there is run the browser and a couple of apps, and presto - slow phone. Pretty much, if you don't take steps (such as using a task manager to keep an eye on things), the phone will run slowly
2) Haptic feedback should have been turned off by default. The difference in texting/text entry speed without haptic feedback is remarkeable.
Finally, a couple points about logic. The phones are designed to behave identically to one another from a hardware point of view. The software that gets loaded on them is initially bit-for-bit identical. That means that at the moment in time when a FR is performed, barring any hardware defect - all phones are identical.
So, you have to ask yourself - how is it that one person can report "my phone is flawless", and another reports "my phone is a POS" - when they start out life as identical units? Clearly it is impossible that "something is (fundamentally) wrong with 2.1" - otherwise, it would be impossible for any user to have a "flawless" experience.
The reason that both views are possible (in the absence of hardware problems) is due to variability in user behavior - apps, the way the phone is used most frequently, the breadth of use, the amount of data left hanging around in caches, etc, etc, etc. The only way to control those sorts of things so that all users have the same experience is to revert to a dumb/closed phone model of use.
If you haven't done it already, I would encourage you to FR your 2.1 phone and see if you have a different experience. (Actually, I think you should root your phone - it is a pleasure to use at 710 Mhz, even if you don't change the software from OTA-2.1, aka Plain Jane or Ivanmmj "Offical 1.0")
eu1
).
yep...stepped-out for a few hours after posting earlier this morning to visit my mom with my daugther in tow...mom's newfoundland (170lbs) ate my daughter's Env Touch...(really). Had to go to VZW and order a refurb (no insurance then...have insurance now! 
