@aewatsonsr77: I don't work for Samsung and have no intention for doing so.
Like you, I am not married to any OEM, and I'm fully capable of being objective in my assessment of a product or service.
When this device was announced in September 2011, I was watching J.K. Shin pull the Galaxy Note from his jacket pocket and I knew right then that finally a manufacturer had developed the one device that made sense for my life.
I did not buy the Note because of an upgrade to ICS, so in my case, if the Note never gets ICS I'm good.
My whole point to you is that if you don't want the Note or it does not fit into the way you live your life, or even better, you discover another phone that better meets your needs, then do what's best for you. No one in a forum is living your exact life, and so no one in a forum can really answer your question. All we can do is give you our experience. If that experience is good, then to you it will sound like a commercial, I suppose.
Like you, I visted the At&t store and played around with the HTC One X. I don't know if we're the same in this regard, but I actually took it home last week for a real world tryout. I knew I wasn't going to get the device, but I like shiny new things and wanted to use it for real and knew that a few minutes in a store would not provide adequate time.
I returned it in 48 hrs., but I had a chance to use it in my world. I knew when it was announced at 4.7 inches that as my main device it was simply too small, but I wanted to see what all the fuss about this phone was all about.
In my opinion, that's the only way you can get your questioned answered. Take it home, kick the tires, and see if it fits in your garage. If all is well, go back to your salesperson and sign the contract.
If all does not go well, keep what you have and wait for the next model.
Galaxy Note! Phone. Tablet. Planner. Notepad. eReader. The only device I need!