For those who are fine with virtual keyboards, the Hero or Magic are probably great. I wont use such a device, so I don't recommend them.

You might. I don't.

On the other hand, you can't currently tether on the iPhone too, so using your "if an iPhone is good enough" analogy for the keyboard, then so is Android when it comes to tethering. Maybe somewhere else in the thread the OP said tethering was important, but I didn't see that... so it may not be an issue (it hasn't been for me; it's a "wish I had it", not a "need to have it" feature for me).

I definitely agree. That's why it's an annoyance for me: you have to hack it to get to the linux layer and do things like tethering, and I don't want to have to hack my phone (I can, but I shouldn't have to play that type of game with a critical device). But it's just an annoyance about unrealized potential. None of the things that require rooting are actually necessary (to me), so it's not a deal breaker.

As long as the OP also doesn't need those few features that are only achieved through hacking, then, IMO, Android is as consumer friendly as an iPhone (yes, I've used both).

There are a few thinngs where Maemo has an advantage ... but, those are mostly geek things, not consumer things. For consumers, yes, Android is way out in front. That's one of the reasons I definitely hope to see Dalvik ported to Maemo (hopefully building upon what the Canonical folks are doing).