I'm more than happy to show "delivered reciepts" since that covers the question of whether the message arrived.
I prefer to be able to read and reply later if I want to without feeling guilty that it'll look like I just couldn't be bothered. I mean, it's true, I couldn't be bothered, I just don't want to broadcast that fact :p
If you're on android, read the messages in the popup status window, it'll leave it "unread" until you open the conversation. You might need to enable the preview function for popups and/or popups for out to work. Kind of works unless someone sends a massive amount of messages/text.
It settles the age old question of "Hey, did you get my message?". Many people like this functionality.