I'm not terribly conductive, dry skin it seems works in my favor for once. But as it stands, there is a drop in the antenna, but not exactly in the quality.

What's weird is how I tend to almost "palm" the phone most of the time naturally, a carry over from my iPhone 3GS I guess. But the owner of the iPhone 4 is holding it differently than I tend to. I palm and hold the top part of the phone - I'm usually walking and I know it could shoot out of my hand forward that way.

But yeah. The bumper actually does avoid that. And I finally figured out why my pants that day caused a problem with the bluetooth reception. It was making contact with a rivot, that was grounded on my skin. So... I fear this is just the start of some woes.

A bumper though, or case solves that. Or... as you've listed above, cover the gap somehow.