Yes, I agree 100 percent. I had a feeling you'd say something similar to that. I'm missing a few things coming from Berry and Droid, but overall, I love the platform. Some of the apps represent well, some do not, and some live tiles are very weak, but others are very good.
Overall, a fine OS, considering it's fairly new. I hope that in a year's time, it will improve greatly.
I think the speech recognition is good. I dictate many emails and texts, as I did on Droid and iOS. Can't on my Berry, obviously. Also like the People and Business hubs. If you do any social networking (I do for business, not really for personal), once you set up your Facebook and/or LinkedIn and/or Twitter, everything dumps into the "Whats New" on the People hub and makes it really convenient. Remember some Apps are not called what you expect. i.e., a great app for Instagram is 6tag. As the volume of apps increases, you will probably see authentic rather than 3rd party apps for things, but for now, you can make due. And I happen to like some of the 3rd parties I've used. Impressed with some very much.
Keep experimenting. There are things you are most likely going to love, and things you are going to miss from your previous platform.
Edit: Just remembered. For me, the BEST thing about not relying on my old Berry.... Trying to dial phone numbers with those tiny QWERTY keys! That was horrible. I don't know how I did it for all those years. Now I get presented a HUGE touch keyboard. Or I can dictate the call. Nice change for me.