Your question totally makes sense. What do new smartphones have that older ones didn't have? No crucial improvements since like 2-3 years. If you have WiFi, GPS, Bluetooth, front facing camera, blablablabla... what does a brand new, Q3 2011 device add to this, hardwarewise? Nothing. A fast dual-core CPU, 1GB of RAM, some would say. Woooow, great, and how do I use all that stuff? If you are selling me fancy hardware and that is your main selling point, at least let me use it the way I want, that is, give me the drivers and all the other stuff I need and let me install GNU/Linux or whatever I want.

I guess it will take another couple of years for the manufacturers to adopt that approach. Then, it will totally make sense to ask for more RAM, a super-duper CPU, or a HDMI-out that you could use together with a BT keyboard/mouse to turn your phone into a real PC when necessary. But until then, they will keep ripping us off for some ridiculous "innovations."