A. T. &. T. Is. not. the. only. iPhone. supplier.
America. is. not. the. only. country. with. iPhone.
If it suits Apple with regards to beating the competition you can bet they care more about getting iPhones out there and creating demand above AT&T's/o2's/Rogers/Orange etc etc bottom line.
Where have you been living? Every smartphone i've seen or used before or after the iPhone came out in '07 has had a crappy plastic screen that you had to push on to select something.
Yes, extremely so now that HTC has even started using AMOLED screens. The touch performance has absolutely NOTHING to do with the screen quality. The iPhone needs a higher DPI or to make the move to AMOLED. There are a multitude of phones out now that blow the iPhone away in terms of the screen. It's time for an update there.
Just what I did last month. After selling my 3g I was not that far behind, and when I sell my 3gs, I should be able to break even or better. Worth every penny so far.