I'm not trying to be hostile, but you've got to understand that Mongo is most certainly not a joke, has lots of support, and is a very appealing option in a number of cases.
What cases do you have in mind?
Those are two areas in particular where I would first look to Mongo.
As for JSON, Postgres has first class support for JSON data field types.
I don't really know what you mean about the design being "broken", unless you mean that it's "different", in which case I would agree.
As for write confirmation, you have flexibility in that regard. You don't need to be checking getLastError for write confirmation[0], though if you wanted to use a broken pattern, you could.
We continually hear about how great MongoDB supposedly is from its advocates, with them claiming it's suitable as a general-purpose database.
Yet when somebody who has apparently used it in a production setting speaks out against it and its numerous flaws, the problem isn't with MongoDB. No way! It's a "problem" with the app "not being suited for" what MongoDB is "good at".
But as a counter point... We don't know this was a 'general purpose' problem... so your point isn't even valid even if you were responding to something I said... Unfortunate.
I have yet to experience MongoDB in a large scale production environment and the common pitfalls often cited, but let's face it - If you're Start-Up has scalability issues, it's prob a nice problem to have.
Based on my personal observations, i suspect the lack of adoption is because founders are thinking about scale prematurely - which is rather Anti Lean Startup and Anti-Pg anyway.
What I've read about MongoDB, it wants to use all the memory it gets. So it's only usable if it is running on its own server. (And in the beginning of MongoDB it had to be 2 servers if you didn't want to lose data.)
Is this a false information again? Am I falling for anti MongoDB FUD again?
I've had MongoDb running on my laptop in less than 5 mins and used it locally for multiple projects without issues.
The kind of problems you mention probably occur on very heavy use but i've never witnessed it myself.
For small scale stuff and getting up and running quickly, i've not used anything as convenient as Mongo
Note: I'm on Windows.
Also consider MongoHQ - They have a really good Start-Up package.