This phone issue has actually turned out to be beneficial for me. While I'm sitting here waiting for my car to arrive (it can't be here soon enough, but at least I've got my E46 to keep me company until then!) I can at least be distracted by trying to find the perfect phone for me and my E90
As an aside, I sent an email to Verizon asking about why they chose to cripple this new phone. The response was as expected: apologetic, but didn't give a reason why. All they said was that they might release a software update in the future.