I would second the "don't blame Android" comment. I had a Fascinate for probably a year, bought it when it was first released. The screen was truly beautiful, and the hardware overall was pretty good, aside from the weak antenna. Samsung and Verizon's software is where things went downhill.
I swapped mine and my wife's Fascinates for Incredible 2's, and the stock Android is pretty much flawless. Even still, I'm currently running MIUI (Android 2.3.5) and have all the elegance of the iPhone, all the capabilities of Android and ALL the hardware is supported. I couldn't be more satisfied. Don't judge Android based on a handicapped version running on a difficult to develop for phone like the Fascinate.
Incidentally, I recently dug up my old iPhone 3G, cleared it off and updated to the latest iOS. Running them side-by-side, iOS honestly feels like a toy. It's still fun to play with, but it's capabilities are just incredibly limited by Apple's blind compulsion for dumbing down the UI in the name of supposed "ease of use".