I pre-ordered. The nook is my first e-reader so I (obviously) have no heavy bias or stake in this race. So I'm also surprised by the uprising of negative nook comments. Seems rather obvious to me that if the nook doesn't suit your needs then to find something that does.
It's not like I spend all my time in the Kindle forums harassing their users.
The perfect end all, be all device does not (yet) exist. Personally lack of web browser is a non-issue to me. I love the loaning option, free B&N reading, removable battery, etc, etc. Personally I don't like the physical real estate of a keyboard on a device like the Kindle. I'm using the reader to...read, not type a thesis.
I'm new around here but I'm sensing a bit of fanboy-ism much like gaming consoles.