I haven't seen any other Nexus devices (not just phones) "in the wild," though I don't really pay much attention to what kinds of mobile devices other people have.
I think people that get Nexus devices likely tend to do a lot more research when choosing a device, while most people follow the ads and what kinds of phones/tablets the people they know use.
At this point, I'd have a hard time running anything but vanilla Android (GEL not withstanding - I do like it a bit more than vanilla, but it's kind of like: more Android than Android) from which stock versions are available out there. Even changing settings on other peoples' Samsung devices makes me grimace on the inside a little. Not as much as configuring Apple products for people does though, obviously. Though with that, I'm likely feeling like being nice enough to offer in the first place, so that gets me through.
Since 4.2, why device distributors/manufacturers running their versions of Android feel like needlessly mucking it up as much as they do, I'll never know. Maybe it gives them an identity and a sense of accomplishing something at least beyond just running vanilla on the OS side of things.