OK, warranty maybe intact after all. I've spent the last hour looking back over this stuff trying to figure out where I heard that hacking to gain root violated the warranty. It was back at the time of the original product release, and it seems from Maemo that a hack is no longer necessary in light of the flasher utility and 2006OS. So I am excited now that this can be done.

Back more squarely on topic of competition, especially in the business user/IT purchasing and support space rather individual enthusiast, it is important what a device can do without extensive user modification and I look forward to exploring my new found freedom.