I have a Bold 9000 for almost a year now (and I bought it used). My trackball works perfectly without any issues. And this is the toughest phone I've ever owned or seen. So I don't know where you are coming from.
I also like the interface, everything just integrates with everything. I can send pretty much anything to pretty much any service I use (fb, twitter, tumblr, ...) with the same interface. I just love that. But YMMV :)
Honestly, you're lucky. We've had nothing but problems with the trackballs at work. To be clear, I still love the software part of the UI, I just hate the trackball.
Did you ever use any of the old style blackberries?
I've used both the phones in your post and by and large I agree with you. That said, you seem to be talking about phones in a business environment. Do the users of the phones you're talking about own them? I wonder if they treat them with less respect if they can get a new one just by dumping it on your desk every 3 months.
I'm not saying the problem isn't there, just it might be exacerbated by user behaviour that RIM didn't anticipate.
I keep it in the leather thingy (don't know what it's called), maybe that makes a difference ...
I haven't used any of the old models, but now I see that I've been missing out :) My next phone will most likely be the Torch (or it's successor) as I think it combines best of both worlds.
I'll echo what everyone else here is saying - Blackberry is still king with email and might always be. But the iPhone and Android are just doing something completely different that's more relevant to more smartphone users.
I also like the interface, everything just integrates with everything. I can send pretty much anything to pretty much any service I use (fb, twitter, tumblr, ...) with the same interface. I just love that. But YMMV :)