Had to make the same decision as you. I come from liking stock android and am not a fan of the skins like touchwiz, but I found LG's software to be pretty nice. I use Nova launcher and have actually come to like the software tweaks LG has (Qpair, miracast, quick remote, qslide, etc.) which you don't get with the GPE. Sure apps may come out to take advantage of these, but having them baked in is nice. One thing I do not like is the notification panel is pretty cluttered, but it's easy to get use to. Also, I got the normal version when it was $299.99 so saving $50 was a nice perk. There's also a lot of developers making ROMs and rooting methods if you're into that so if I get sick of LG I can move over to CM11 or a different ROM.