+ 1 on the last two.
Never had anything before iPhone, no mp3, no i-pod, no old flip handset, nothing. Loved it at first touch. Handled many since (I work in electronics now), Android (Samsung SII, SIII, Nexus, HTC One, etc.), RIM, and I hate the feel of all of them. Like someone said to me, "more open, more features-a-plenty, but somehow with the feel of a beta tester device". Nothing remotely close to the polish of the iPhone. Yeah, the SIII is so great, the screen is so big, and it stays lit when it sees your face... Oooooooh... but did you see just how much a simple text window looks F****** UGLY on this phone?! Cluttered... Cluttered is the word. Yet they're not bad phones, Android, Samsung especially... A different look, for different users and tastes... but as they are now, each of the 1000 of them, none could single-handedly win the market like any iPhone does. Android gets market because there are plenty of them... Samsung gets market because they themselves release kind of a 100 different handsets per year... That's just the plain and painful truth.
Never was so interested in latest technology before my first iPhone (3GS), nor would I follow any thread about any of it, and I never really even bothered to play with those kind of things. Bought iPhone 4 three months after 3GS... Subscribed here and else... Following iPhone 5 news madly...
Bottom line : I LOVE the darn thing. And I jailbreak it... myself. You'd told me I'd do that two years ago and I would have laugh in your face. Not that it is that hard, but then again, I would never have known... Yet here I am.
Also, I don't like those "you should have bought something else" comments, for the same reasons. You simply can't always know everything about what you're buying. And even knowingly, one can choose to buy it no matter what, exactly for the same "love at first feel" I experienced. And then express the regret of not having some functionality, that would make it perfect for them. This is a forum about iPhone, is it?
I do not agree that they are as perfect as they can be when they are stock. On the other hand, I can't say that every jailbroken app, tweak, theme, utility, is working just as fine (many not at all) as Apple would make it... yet they made mistakes, Apple, too. Obviously, those who curse jailbreaking never used something like SBSettings, nor had the malicious pleasure to replace their carrier name with something like "Suckers" (or worse) to vent off some anger. And then have Bart Simpson skating as a carrier. It's just plain fun... and useful. Did you know, you the "stock Apple" lovers AND jailbreaking haters, that with a jailbroken iPhone you can use FaceTime over 3G, and download anything you want no matter the 20MB filesize restriction? That's just one of the stupid stock restriction that jailbreak makes up for. And, surprise, surprise, iOS 6 will finally allow FaceTime to work over 3G... Don't tell me they had the idea themselves. Please, do not think jailbreakers and developers are a bunch of pathetic teenagers who endanger your devices with pirating tools offering unfinished, clumsy functionnality. Get infos, and you'll see... Apple takes a lot of clues in jailbroken apps for their firmware updates. Even Android does, in order to beat Apple with the unsastisfied users a jailbreaking market suggest... SIII has something like SBSettings integrated to it, yet not as complete. But the truth, like someone said here, is that jailbreakers love their i-Device just as much as any other user.
As for my reply to the OP, I do agree that Apple is missing something, about letting the user personalize his device. A kind of "Live Animate Notification Center" on Lockscreen could be something great if made by Apple, just like many other ideas people often express in thread like this. I agree with the idea that a lockscreen is basically a LOCKscreen, and I do like it as simple as possible, with a little esthetic touch up, and not displaying infos I don't need. But then again, my taste is not for everyone, and Apple should aknowledge the user desires a little more than they do, and implement some way to personalize a great couple if things. Without drifting into beta tester Android devices. Still, that's not the Apple way, is it? I wouldn't count on it.
Meanwhile, you can simply jailbreak and change the one or two things you'd like to improve, and leave everything else untouched... But trust me, you'll go back for more and more!