The thing that converted me after owning PCs for the last 14 years was the durability and AppleCare which I only paid ~£50 for (student discount is very generous here in the UK) so I have to agree with you there.
Same here. Got a boxed version on ebay for about $80. Just got a new trackpad, keyboard and screen with it. Didn't ask for half the stuff Apple fixed but oh well.
I think I use W7 about as much as I use OS X so the OS wasn't really an issue for me, I wanted something that wasn't going to fry in a year and I'd be left stranded.
Win7 ain't bad. It still looks like a Fisher-Price toy to me though.
15 year PC veteran myself. I went through laptops like cheap booze. Then I saw a friend's white macbook that was 5 years old with a lot of miles on it. Old tech to be sure but still very solid. I was sold on Apple's build quality then and there and never looked back.
I really don't care what stupid things Apple comes up with down the road. Just don't change their build standards or customer service.