@ livefreeordie, DannStar, and nilchak:

I understand your point of view, don't get me wrong I'm disgusted with the system the providers have put in place. Unfortunately here in the US, there aren't many options.

Whether I get a subsidized phone or not, my monthly plan is the same! If I want to go with a prepaid plan, in most cases it is more expensive than a monthly plan.(unless we're talking about a user that uses very little)

In that case if my plan is the same it would be *****ic for me not to at least get a subsidized phone! the only difference is I am stuck with a certain provider for 1-2 years. I dont mind I've been with Tmobile for 5-6 years or so... I like them becuase they have great customer service compared to the others, and they're cheaper, but their coverage is definitely not as good. signing the 2 year contract is no biggie for me... because I know that ATT or Verizon would be screwing me even harder!

As long as Nokia and the providers could come to an agreement where the phone isn't "physically" restricted in some way, I don't see a problem. As long as Nokia is still free to offer the regular Freemantle os Flash option, there is no problem for me.
This would give Nokia the opportunity to spread this "new" OS called "maemo" to a bigger chunk of the population, and at the same time all the current maemo users would know how to get the device to do what it was intended to do.

The only difference I see, at least in the USA, is that mainstream users will be faced with the same issues they've been faced for a long time... in this sense the US mainstream users won't even know they are being faced with those issues, because that is just how it works here. However they will be introduced to an awesome concept, a great phone, a great device, and might start looking forward to new maemo devices, might start gaining insterest in how to modify their tablet, and might just find out that you can actually flash the tablet and do SO MUCH MORE!

I understand the principle of the matter, the concept of open source, and how it would be stifled in the instance I depicted above, but I think in this case, for the US market, Nokia will be shooting themselves in the foot, and instead of facilitiating the diffusion of this great device, they might just restrict it to the current maemo community, and to those willing to purchase a hi end "phone" that costs > than $600.00
Besides if the option to Flash the device is kept on the table, then you could argue the device is still fully customizable/opensource!