Your dilemma is understandable. I've been with WP since Samsung Focus first debuted. Like you, I've owned several handsets in the WP system. I haven't bothered to leave in spite of some nifty things I can do with other phones due to their popularity. Frankly, all of the use cases you listed don't really apply to me so I am going to offer my observation and opinion only. iOS and Android will always be adopted first in the market place and therefore receive attention first. This is just a matter of math. No one out there is doing anything just for fun. Some do, of course, but most do not. Programmers and their funding studios have a purpose and it's to make money. Supporting the largest community of users makes sense. Only greater adoption of Microsoft platform can change that. So. We're left with the dilemma. On the one hand, if you leave, you can do stuff you want to do that you think you should be able to do. That's a fair proposition - in a world of competition this is how it should work. On the other hand, if you leave, you work against yourself. You can't want WP to be supported by new and cool stuff if it doesn't grow enough for OEMs and developers to support it. If more people leave than join, then the problem will never go away; in fact, it may hasten the platform's demise no matter what Microsoft says their commitment might be. In the USA, we have another more example that may help. Wal-Mart vs local merchants. People claim Wal-Mart is big-bad-and-evil, yet they shop there rather than with their local merchants. Sure their prices are cheap, selection is vast, quality dubious, provide cheap jobs, and they are nearly ubiquitous ... but they have displaced and are displacing local merchants and due to the product profile tend to favor foreign (manufacturing) jobs and products over domestic. For me, not-supporting Wal-Mart is a values proposition. I don't shop there if I can avoid it. The issue is not unlike my support of Microsoft (though admittedly its markedly less controversial). I need to resist being forced into "top 2" because options are important. But, as others have said, at least Microsoft is providing customers options by supporting their software on competing platforms. You may get the best of both worlds. Pick what is most important to you and go with it. I believe in Microsoft's vision. Their software has provided me with a stable and long term career (I'm a Microsoft SQL Server DBA), I've used their software my entire life, I love my XBO, and so I'm sticking with the business and it's platform as a show of solidarity. I also make my family do the same (since I pay the bills). I evangelize and educate my friends and coworkers when they ask my what I have in my hand and am asked why not iPhone. If WP fails, well, then I gave it my go AND enjoyed an alternative for several years. While my live doesn't revolve around mobile, it is very important. Since I'm resistant to social trend and media, I have a lot more independence. I can live with anything as a tech person, but I have a preference and baring any forced requirements (say, by employer, or WP going away) I think I'm fine with what I am supporting. Just remember, the community must grow before anything will really change. Microsoft, in releasing W10M and Flagships, will have done their part. Marketing only matters so much. Word-of-mouth is golden and the social aspect to this cannot be ignored. It is our responsibility. We need to help make it cool if we really care about this, not give up just because the platform isn't hasn't yet achieved (by whatever degree is important to you) feature parity.
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