I am one of those who agrees & disagrees with the OP.
I think that htcsense.com's compatability is a valid issue. I know you can download apps to track & wipe your phone, but skin downloading should be enabled at the very least. Do you actually think that Verizon is going to come out with skins for either the Tbolt or Inc2? No. So now we have to look to devs to port them over for people who aren't planning to root. They already have for the Tbolt, but haven't seen any for the Inc2. I don't get why if Verizon wanted you to use their stuff, they couldn't at least allow you access to the stuff they aren't going to provide. I'm wondering how long it will be before they start censoring the market further (like they did with the tether apps) to get rid of anything that competes with what they're offering.
As far as Gingerbread, that's been out since last fall. How long did it take for all devices to start shipping with Froyo after it made it's way onto a few devices? Not long. Multiple tech blogs have asked the same question, why aren't we seeing GB on devices out of the box? They have had plenty of time to perfect Sense 2.0 for GB (2.0 came out on the Desire late summer/early fall) so what other than the carrier is the holdup?
As far as the OTA issue, that's another valid point. With Verizon's rep for rigorous testing, they dropped the ball on that one. Many don't have the issue, but many do. If the split is anywhere near 50/50, that's an issue. We knew about the reboot issue when the leaked update showed up, but assumed that the delay was to fix the issue. When it showed up as the same build, you've got to wonder how they didn't see this.
The Skype & Netflix issues are not on either HTC or Verizon. Skype's issue is on them and Netflix's is on no one since that was never said to be avaiable on the Tbolt. From the looks of things though, Netflix should be available in the future (if it's availablilty on phones like the Inc1 is any indication).
Basically points 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, & 12 are on Verizon. They tell the manufacturer what they want out of the phone (specs & what features to enable or disable) and the updates & network are on them to test and fix/ report to the manufacturer. Point 2 is on HTC for not getting their UI to work with the most recent version of android in a timely manner. I've already commented on where the issue with points 10 & 11 lie.
I had the Tbolt for 2 months, & ended up going to an Inc2. It's just more stable & since I won't have LTE for a couple of years, it's not a necessity for me. I started having the reboots & I didn't even get to download the update. Add in the sporadic battery life, gps, sms & data issues & it just wasn't worth it.
If they would've released it as a 3G phone in late 2010 as originally planned, they would've had a winner on their hands for the time. Trying to re-engineer the device in a 4-5 month timeframe is what gave them their problems.
If Moto is actually using the Targa in place of the Bionic they might actually succeed (assuming the Targa was planned to be an LTE device). But I think the reality of having a new android device every week or two is just going to be more of the same as far as making the end user the beta tester. With such a tight schedule to get the devices to the public, the quality control will suffer. Just my opinion.