Well that's just the bizarre missing feature to install apps to the SD card, combined with the manufacturers's braindead insistence in shipping the devices with the least amount of inbuilt flash that they could possibly get away with.

You can't even install the last several OS build on the 256mb in the G1 and other early devices! Instead of bumping that to a reasonable 4gb for a couple dollars, they just doubled it to 512. Even Google's high-end Nexus One comes with only 512mb!

WTFs all around. An SD card is nice, but I shouldn't need it.