After now owning the Optimus V for a couple weeks, and still owning my iPod touch 4th gen 32GB, I thought I'd share my thoughts on comparisons on them, as well as sort of answer my own question about carrying both vs not.
So I've been very impressed with the Optimus V. I also owned an iPhone 4 last year for a brief period, so I've gotten a taste of the flagship iOS device as well.
But more specifically in comparison to the iPod touch...
Speed/responsiveness: I actually find the OV to be LESS laggy than the iPod. I believe the OV has twice the RAM so that might be a big part of the difference. My iPod touch is snappy after a fresh restore, but as soon as I load it up with apps, it becomes a lot more laggy and unresponsive for brief moments here and there.
Camera: This is where the OV is a big disappointment. The VGA camcorder is obviously not up to the quality of the HD cam on the iPod touch, but the sound is equally terrible. But even the still camera on the iPod touch (despite being less than a megapixel) is still better and more useful because it's sooo much quicker. There's so much delay on the still camera with the OV that I haven't managed to get a good shot of my daughter playing yet. With the iPod touch I can fire off pictures pretty quick.
Screen quality: The OV isn't bad. It's of course not going to be like the Retina display (on either the iPod or iPhone) but it's decent. Web browsing is not nearly as pleasant as on the iPod. But if I'd never owned an iDevice, I'd probably be pretty pleased with the quality. I've just been spoiled by Retina.
Other stuff I really like: I'm surprised at how much I like it as a music player. Google Navigation is absolutely incredible. My wife has a Garmin I used to borrow, and I prefer Google's method so much better. And never having to update maps (or pay to update maps) is awesome. Battery life isn't nearly as bad as I was thinking after reading so many mentions about it in reviews. If you manually shut off the radios you don't need when you don't need them, you can really keep things under control. I did download Juice Defender for when I'm out and about and don't need the Data running constantly. This saves a ton of battery as well.
As far as what I've been carrying or not carrying. The first few days, I carried both, but I just felt like a nerd juggling touch devices in my pockets. As well as needing a pocket for my keys, and another for my wallet. It just became a pain. So I've started carrying only the OV. For most things, it's a plus, cause it does most of what my iPod does. Most is the key word. The main thing I miss, goes back to the camera. I always had an HD videocam in my pocket, and a decent (And very quick) still camera. My daughter is 2 so it's prime time for stills and video and I took a LOT with my iPod, but now I don't really do it with the OV because of the camera shutter lag and the poor quality video. This might eventually drive me to carry both again.
So my concerns about gadget redundancy were correct. I want both with me, because the OV does not replace my iPod touch for everything, but carrying around too much stuff in my pockets is annoying. I could argue though that before I got the OV, I always carried my cell and my iPod, so I just happen to have a bigger cell.
But all in all, I love the OV for what it is. As far as a smartphone, it's got everything covered. The cameras are the one thing that really make it less than perfect. The Motorola Triumph looks like it could hit closer to the mark, but I now have a one year minimum per cellphone rule I am going to try to stick by. By then the Triumph may not even be the best VM has to offer.