Welcome
The 505 was my first dedicated Reader back in October 2007. It's a great device and pretty easy to use. As you say there's a bit of work to do to make a Kindle workable for your average non US resident.
Without the wireless feature the only real difference between it and the Sony(s) is the access to books from Amazon. While there are still some books that Amazon has that others don't (I'm talking Fiction books) that gap is getting smaller every day. The Sony also has "collections" which give you the potential to organize it very well if you start getting a lot of books on there to keep organized. The Kindle has no real organization like this.