+1 on all points. I like my Droid very much and wouldn't trade it for an iPhone, but criticizing those who prefer the iPod experience is like criticizing those who prefer to eat in a good restaurant rather than learning to be a chef.
The bottom line is that the two most significant differences between the iPhone and the Droid are that the iPhone doesn't support multitasking by third party applications and the iTunes store is a much more tightly controlled marketplace than Google's Market.
And while each can be argued to be a plus for the Droid, there is just as strong an argument that preventing multi-tasking for third party apps avoids the multitude of problems demonstrated on this board that tempt users to use "task killers" to deal with unpredictable performance. And though Droid users prefer the "openness" of the Google Market, the iPhone marketplace is not flooded with half-finished not-ready-for-beta "applications" that are so common there.
Finally, you're correct; there is no guarantee that the iPhone is coming to Verizon. In fact, while I give a lot more credence to the WSJ than to bloggers who repeat rumors from other bloggers, the story in the WSJ didn't say the iPhone would be on Verizon. The story said there would be an "apple phone" available on VZW. And that is very unlikely to happen before next fall at the earliest.