TBH I share a lot of the sentiments of the OP. Especially where networks are concerned.
Granted, their job is to make money, but IMO when there are far less expensive alternatives around the customer should have a choice. Why should I pay £5pm for 1GB of internet that, for the most part, is not much faster than the 0ld 56k, compared to the 25GB of 7Mb/sec that I'm getting at home for less than £20?
If my provider invested in it's network a lot more, made the services usable at least, then I wouldn't mind going along for the ride.

The N900 is like a breath of fresh air to me, after putting up with the network lock-outs for years. Nokia may be slated for it's lacklustre updates performance, but the networks are far worse for not allowing their end users access to the latest updates because the updates contain something that THEY don't want us to see, in favor of their crippling services.
I simply don't like the N9 because of it's Fisher Price looks and the fact that a lot more of it is closed, compared to the N900.