It is you that need to get over yourself ... personally your statement I've replied to stated less information regarding BlackBerry for someone that claims to have used BB devices. I didn't purchase as much as you have, I've troubleshooted far more as an assistant to a BES Admin, even installed several production servers regarding legacy BB devices.
Preference is always induced by those around you (a community of such) and by knowledge of a product and price.
Palm, 3COM, or HandSpring, then Palm Inc, the licensing issues/fued against Sony before the smartphone age showed it's issues - many have no clue of this, and thus going Palm with the Treo was just late with innovation .. I believe they where the LAST smartphone in the business to go colour screen across the board, and also failed by continue to heavily market their PDA lineup when when the competition MS Pocket PC Phone Edition/Smartphone Edition, Nokia's S60 or SE's UIQ began to gain traction.
BTW, I'm 40 so there is no way you've been buying phones longer than I have, I was 15 when the Car Phone or "BAG" phone appeared in public just after Miami Vice.