A lot of what you said at the start is kind of my point, though. Unless you're dying to unlock your phone with your eye (and how reliable will the tech even be, to know when you want the device open, vs. using Glance?), there's just not that much going on with this device. Fingerprint tech's improved, but it's still something where if you don't line the finger up properly, it's going to be problematic. I'm not one to use a password on my phone because I don't hand my phone out to people or leave it on a random table. The iris scanner just sounds like another potential means of gathering personal data (I'm 100% a paranoid person with this stuff, no lies), and it sounds like more of a meaningless gimmick than something to offer meaningful functionality to the OS and its handsets.
For SoCs, I'm fine with Qualcomm's stuff, partially because the alternatives are somewhat lacking (Samsung doesn't push its chips to other OEMs, and Intel's not shown that Atom chips can power phones well),. The problem is that Microsoft wants to use the Apple release schedule when it's 6 months AFTER the hardware launches. They could get away with on-par SoCs to Galaxy and One devices if they were launching phones in the spring, but they're not. They're using on-par hardware 6 months late, which means the fresh Lumia chips are about to get replaced, and the improved stuff's already been at least somewhat announced, making the new Lumia stuff nearly dead.
As for your ideal specs, I don't care for most of it. It's just whatever on a page. I'd take anything from 4.5-6.0" and any display resolution of 1080p higher, as resolution on the display just doesn't get me excited. I'd take 32 GB of storage base with microSD, I get by fine with the 32 GB in my 920. Honestly, the ho-hum upgrades would be fine if they launched alongside the Android competition, but the fact it is 6 months late makes me want more because the SoC's about to get replaced/improved upon. That's why I ask for things like the improved camera from the 930/1520 and more storage.