I personally object to discussions like this post, as it is a decision made entirely on your own personal concept of comfort, as well as rather intimate connection between yourself and the device.
I am a recent iPhone 5s -> Nokia Lumia 1520 switcher and I can attest that some of the arguments that you have raised are definitely valid. While The App Store on WP is a vast improvement compared to what it used to be in 2012 (I got my Lumia 800 at that time), it still lacks some cool and useful apps, and quite indispensable like Day One. That being said, some multi-platform apps that do exist suck big time on WP i.e., Path that is nowhere as polished and elegant as its iOS counterpart.
On the other hand, the photo UI of Nokia devices + PureView are notably better, and quite substantially better, respectively in photo and video recording. Those were the actual reasons that made me switch to WP.
While I have not tested the WP 8.1 iteration (waiting for the stable release), it looks fantastic and most definitely invalidates the feature gap. In addition, customization of the home screen in WP to me is very elegant and allows you to obtain the latest info and feeds without the need of opening specific apps. Naturally, Notifications in iOS is nice, but far from being as elegant and functional as WP live tiles; naturally, IMHO.
Overall, I feel that with releases like WP 8.1 MSFT has bright future ahead with their mobile services & products departments. Plus they have something that Apple does not have, that is their own search infrastructure that powers MSFT's Cortana; let's not forget that the latter is entirely customizable and plugs in nicely to devs' apps, something that Siri definitely lacks. I believe the last two factors give MSFT competitive advantage, no matter how you look at it.
Finally, MSFT's new CEO has made numerous pronouncements about ramping up the pace of WP development and seems to position his vision on cloud and mobile computing. In this context, WP 9 is believed to follow in approximately one year after WP 8.1 release. We'll believe it when we see it, I guess.
Take care.