Would you like if your car ran without fail at 10 MPG, or would you take the occasional hiccup in durability to get 30-40 MPG? I mean iPhones "just work" pretty well, but if I am going to commit myself to a 2-year contract, I don't want something that JUST works. I want something that will be a pleasure to use.
Not sure this is entirely supported by a lot of people. Sure it's nice to have the ability to play around with the settings of a device to make it better, faster and more reliable but the iPhone is evidence that not all people crave that open system or the ability to play around with their devices like this. Some people really do just want to buy a smart phone and use it everyday as it comes out of its box and not try to alter its performance after that. In my experience on Android devices sure it was nice to be able to flash a custom ROM or kernel whenever I wanted to but in all honesty there's this trademark lag/slowdown after a while that I got with any phone and any rom. The "just works" element has been a great comfort to me on my 920, seeing my device be literally just as fast and reliable as the day I got it after a month or two is almost unthinkable to any Android device I've owned.
Either way I think there's something to be said of both arguments. A phone that does work and perform well out of the box is always going to be reviewed and received well by consumers. A phone that can be customised until your heart is content is going to draw in the type of person that likes to flash custom ROM's, kernels and so on but I don't think it's ever going to be as encouraged on WP devices as it ever is on Android. The more time goes by the more tweaks and different hacks/roms will become available on XDA and other sites for your device but it's also good to know that where on Android I almost *had* to root my device to keep it performing and using the latest software the older my phone got, that on WP I have the option to leave the device as it is because it really does perform well.