From Wall St to Kinshasa, people want everyday appliances to just do their jobs and not waste their time.
Why would those have to be mutually exclusive? I drive a Toyota 4Runner. Stock/unmodified it's a great daily driver, a safe family car, hauls a lot of stuff, and is great in the winter. But I like to go fishing, and where I fish is not always easily accessible with what Toyota has given me. Luckily, there is a healthy aftermarket that gives me the freedom to jack up the suspension, add a locking rear differential, and install bigger tires (which are not just for looks).
Or I can buy an HTC HD2 which comes stock with Windows Mobile 6.5 (which does well enough on its own, all WM6 jokes aside it still works as a phone), but thanks to HTC's unlocked bootloader and a healthy aftermarket community, I could also install Android, MeeGo, Ubuntu, and Windows Phone 7. There's no reason why "moddable" and "functional" have to be exclusive categories. Actually a nice thing about WebOS devices is that they are almost completely unbrickable. If you mess up, HP gives you directions on how to boot from USB to reinstall everything. No reason why every other phone can't have that ability, too, to avoid warranty claims.
Or I can buy an HTC HD2 which comes stock with Windows Mobile 6.5 (which does well enough on its own, all WM6 jokes aside it still works as a phone), but thanks to HTC's unlocked bootloader and a healthy aftermarket community, I could also install Android, MeeGo, Ubuntu, and Windows Phone 7. There's no reason why "moddable" and "functional" have to be exclusive categories. Actually a nice thing about WebOS devices is that they are almost completely unbrickable. If you mess up, HP gives you directions on how to boot from USB to reinstall everything. No reason why every other phone can't have that ability, too, to avoid warranty claims.