Everyone that would care to be commenting on this thread is probably only around 1% of the entire Android smartphone market. Most people with their smartphones will choose one that looks fancy over one with "The highest specs". I'll use my cousin for example. If she walked into an AT&T store to upgrade her phone (cause that's what she does). She will probably see the gs4 think its ugly the HTC one and think its super sleek but very large, and the X which she would probably think is just right, see that she can customize it, and choose that phone. Plus In the business world having cool stylish and unique devices could give you a 1 up on your competition. It makes you look rich and successful.
Who can even tell the difference between a 1080p 5 inch screen vs a 720p 4.7 inch phone. Performance wise the X beats or ties with the Nexus 4 and HTC one at almost all its benchmarks, and beats the GS4 about half the time. Especially on the onscreen game tests but even on the offscreen tests. Everyone that's used it has said that its been really smooth and they like it. Do we really need 4 cores when the Nexus 4 performs day to day tasks with 2 of its cores turned off (which I did)?
I don't think a lot of the people wishing this phone was 3-400 off contract even know how the Nexus 4 was cheaper. Motorola is still a hardware company! They need to make profits on their device! Google subsidized the N4! Google isn't allowed to subsidize a non nexus Motorola device due to the nature of their acquisition (or at least that's what I understand of it). The 3 main reasons this phone is more expensive is #1 its assembled in the USA so assembly costs more. #2 It has 3 processors instead of just 1, its like buying 3 cereal boxes instead of getting a larger bag. #3 Right now the Carriers are having huge influence on the devices cost.
Personally once I could get a customized Moto x for myself on T-mobile I would. The always listening feature is something I would really use! I don't use Google now for searching because its faster to just pull it up in a browser, the always listening makes it much faster and easier. The screen displaying notifications and info is the biggest seller for me. That's a hugely useful feature to me, and to people that don't use their phone all day (the average consumer). Having the time and notifications just pop up quickly without changing a button will be really make things run smoother.