You know what I'm running into a lot? Bad headphone jacks, or should I say headphone jacks that go bad after a bit of use. For my GNex experience, I waited the whole two weeks to make sure everything worked before rooting. After I rooted, as we all know, it's a slippery slope and now I am running AOKP Milestone 2 along with I can't even remember which kernel (just joking, Franco 12, duh, who'd forget that).
In hindsight, that first few weeks running stock ICS ended up being a great thing. For one, from an end user perspective, the leap from GB to ICS is light years beyond the Froyo-GB jump. I actually really enjoyed ICS. I can honestly say that the battery life issue is the only thing that got me thinking of rooting.
Now that I've got a rockin setup where my battery is essentially bulletproof, though, I realize those battery-saving habits I developed during the first few weeks are still paying off. Leaving Wi-fi off until I actually have something to download, for example, helps. So does clicking the power button to shut the screen off manually every time I put the phone down.
Anyways. That is my longwinded explanation as to what worked for me, and why I'm glad I took the path I did. Hope you get your phone soon, man...let me be the first to say welcome to Team Awesome.