"Selling their soul to Apple..." "not getting the best flagship products..."
It's called business, folks.
Verizon can't simply get the best of everything. If they had the best HTC, best Moto, best Samsung, best LG, and best Apple products... they would dominate. Different carriers are going to get different deals.
All the players involved have to try and keep everyone happy. HTC and Moto know iPhone is coming. They know that will impact their ability to sell phones in Q1/Q2 at Verizon.
So compromises are made. Moto says we'll push harder at AT&T on some of those iPhone 3GS customers that might be getting ready to come off contract (released June 8, 2009, 2 year agreement would end June 2011) and give them a slightly better product (better RAM, better accessories). HTC says we'll release maybe a bit earlier, but we're not going to throw the more expensive components (dual core) into the phone.
They're going to let the iPhone rush subside, and let those customers get into their nice long 2 year contracts.
I would imagine in Q3/Q4 you'll see the Thunderbolt 2 or something like that from HTC. It will be the phone the original Thunderbolt should have been, with a dual core processor, etc.
Same thing with Moto. Late this year or very early next year you'll see a Bionic 2 or their next flagship device, just like you saw with Droid being released on Nov. 6, 2009, Droid X on July 15, 2010 (8 months later). It would make sense if they release in April to have the next gen in December for the Christmas rush.
My two cents. It's just business. I haven't played with blur, but I don't like the idea of not being able to do whatever I want on a phone due to it being locked down. Only time will tell.