I've used several tablet/stylus devices over the years, but this is my first experience with e-ink. From those who claim to be in the know with e-ink, OracleFromChicago's view seems to be the consensus. I also know that my tablet PCs that needed special pens worked much better than the one that could use any plastic stylus, so I'm easily convinced that the special pen gives me a better experience.

I'm also not sure why people have aversion to buttons. I like that there are physical buttons for functions that are common to most apps/screens that don't take up screen real estate. This may be a crappy analogy, and engineers feel free to correct me, but when we went shopping for a blender all the expert advice said don't get an electronic one - get ones with physical buttons for the different speeds. The rationale was that software is buggier than physical mechanics, and even when there is a physical problem, that's easier to get fixed as more people would know how to deal with the mechanics than the software. I'm not sure whether that extends to e-readers (or whether it's even correct), but it does influence my perception of machines in general, for better or worse. I agree that at first I was inadvertently hitting all kinds of buttons by mistake, but I don't think the presence of buttons over more gesture features is necessarily a design flaw.

I agree that it would be nice to not have to wait 10 seconds to know that the device is powering up. I've been mostly in the bright sun when starting up the machine, and it's very difficult to tell that the LED lights are on (especially if you have sunglasses on). The X logo takes about 10 seconds to be visible, and given that I've had power battery issues, I'm never confident that the thing has turned on. But, like you, I'd put that lower on the priority list.

I generally like what it does and how it does it - I'm with you, I'm hoping that speed and power improvements are coming as the device gets more popular.