The only issues I've read about on these forums relate to not having root anymore and battery life being worse. I used to root and rom the hell out of my thunderbolt and galaxy nexus but this phone works so well without it that I haven't even thought about rooting. The only reason to root that I've read about here is to get free tethering, but I'll bet most people are on share everything plans now which already come with free tethering. So basically, if you don't want to root, not being able to shouldn't be a big deal. And if you do, supposedly a bootloader unlock method may be coming soon.
Now about battery life... I personally haven't seen any change in battery life since going to 4.4.4. The key is to look at the average screen on time you get per charge. I check this frequently to see if my battery life is changing and I still consistently get about 6 hours screen on time on a charge which has to be way better than most phones available or at least as good.
I still contend that all things considered this is still the best phone on Verizon: amazing battery life, decent camera, not too small and not too big, near pure Google experience, and the awesome active notifications and touchless controls. I'm very satisfied, even on 4.4.4.
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