I'll say this...

Everyone who uses Android will tell you that custom ROMs etc are what are required for a proper experience...

And except for Samsung every other company at one point or the other has placed road-blocks for consumers from doing so...Hence, head over to xda and see the number of brick-bats the devs throw on every OEM except Samsung for their nonsense...Samsung is one of the few to donate devices not only to CM but to other smaller devs too for them to make user experiences better...

HTC failed in the above and hence failed in general...