It sucks but anyone with half a brain knew already that this happening.

Simply don't buy HTC.
Keep right away from Motorola, the XOOM (touted as The Nexus Tablet) has heaps of problems, lack of updates and unreleased sources.

Its difficult, but also refrain from Samsung, that goes double for LG.
Basically, stick to SONY.

If I were to stereotype Android phones, the best to worst software would go from:

SONY - best software
Samsung - best specs (distant second in terms of software stability)
HTC - best value (pretty sour software experience)
Motorola - best physical form (gotta love Kevlar), the software is just so horrible and unable to be changed. Not dev friendly. Avoid this with your life.

iPhone seems to always make the right compromises, so in general the consumers win.