A lot of Android's criticisms come from the fact that people expect it to be an iPhone - they want the screens to scroll like the iPhone, they want to navigate apps using header buttons (instead of the standard back button), they want shaking to undo, they want pressing the trackball to take them home etc. It kinda understandable, as the iPhone is almost everyone's first smartphone, but still pretty silly.

If they get over their iphone-centric view, they'd find Android has many strengths. The standard buttons (home, back, menu) actually improves usability immensely, since you never have to care how a specific app wants to place its navigation elements or options etc. You know the back button will almost always take you back/cancel, you know that if you're ever in doubt, the menu button will save you etc.

I also very much appreciate the fact that the phone doesn't treat me like a dumbass. For example, while the iphone is easier to unlock the first time around (pretty hard to miss the SLIDE HERE TO UNLOCK message), it becomes stupid and annoying after awhile and takes away from the aesthetic appeal. Or the fact that the only allowed customization you can make is to re-arrange your icons, rather than making the phone YOURS and seeing what you actually want to see.