I've got a lot of experience with Android and iOS as well. Android can be as simple or as complex as you want to make it. You can do a lot with Android even without rooting it, however, my advice is that if you think you may want to root your device so that you can further customize the interface or install custom ROMs do some research as to what devices best lend themselves to rooting and have good support from the development community. Of course Nexus devices are the pinnacle of this but there are others as well.
As noted, the forums at Android Central are a great place to get some feedback and guidance in this.
Oh, Android is no longer laggy worth note, IME, on any contemporary device (and I've used A LOT of Android phones this past year). I think you'll find that Android apps, however, are not quite quite as polished as their iOS brethren but they're really still quite good. Also note, that if a app only comes out on one platform that platform is likely to be iOS with Android next. Many developers are closing the gap so that their apps are released on both platforms sooner rather than later (unlike what we see on Windows Phone).
Good luck, have fun!
Sent from my titanium rMini LTE