This community amazes me sometimes...

Worst thing about this whole scenario is that by working away, spending time and money to fix some bugs etc Nokia has brought more hate their way.

Sure, I'd love to see a flash update, and a load of other major features updated in this release, but I'm not disappointed they're not in there. As said before disappointment can only come after an expectation has not been met. I was happy with my phone when I got it, any improvement from there is a bonus to me, and another model coming out with better/equal features doesn't magically make my phone unable to do the things it used to.

A lot of the positive feedback on the new update cites that their phones now seem more responsive and quicker. Should that update have waited 3/6/infinite months until flash, maps etc were ready?

I can't comment on PR1.3 yet as I've yet to see it pop up for an OTA update (I'm in the UK), which just means, like with 1.2, I'll get to see all the problems the eager upgraders have, and how to avoid them. In fact it was a good couple of months after 1.2 that I did eventually do the upgrade, and then only because an app had been improved and the new version needed 1.2

Imagine that: upgrading because there was a reason to and not because the number was bigger..