For those who obviously never owned a Verizon smartphone... they don't change the UI other than to give a default red color if you wish to use it.
The only thing they lock down (although that policy is now changing) is the GPS to only be used by their VZNavigator. Which was okay when you only wanted navigation, but people want other location services now as well. (And there are ROM hacks to enable it anyway.)
It's incredibly ironic that people talk about "crippling" a phone, when Apple has done a great job of doing that by themselves... far more than Verizon ever does.
Apple crippled the iPhone by leaving out Bluetooth profiles for stereo headphones, file transfers, external keyboards. They block users from downloading from anywhere excpet their own store... a lockdown that Jobs used to make fun of carriers for, just a few years back. They decide which types of apps you get to own, and don't allow too much customization. God forbid that you get to decide what your device does or looks like.