i noticed something i'd like to clarify. The last sentance of the second to last paragraph. "the decision to upgrade [to a new better phone] is easy."

Anyway, i upgraded to wm5 and have tried several different versions of the custom roms. The reality is, no matter what the enthusiasts say, it just isn't as stable as a stock wm5 phone. Hopefully it will be in the future, but as electronice decine 40% in value over the course of a year i'm shooting for a newer phone.

My biggest gripe is all the custom wm5 roms have problems with wlan and wifi.

I am going to probably keep wm5 though, despite of the problems, because of the persistent storage. Aka, when the battery completely dies you don't loose everything.