I completely agree with you and I'm being patient. None of us will die without a new iPhone 5 (I PROMISE!).
What puzzles me is trying to figure out how Verizon can keep track of what must be >100k orders without decent systems that are consistently up to date. Given the way updates come from them I'm picturing a giant warehouse with a stack of packing lists on one side, a pile of iPhones on the other side, and a huge group of folks taking a packing list, taking a phone, dropping it in a box and then telling some guy sitting there with a green screen terminal that "Order 39383837 is shipped!" He types in the appropriate code and then the AS400 batch process runs once every 24-48 hours to update the web site.
Obviously Verizon MUST get these orders out or face an enourmous public relations nightmare. You can also look at this another way - it appears Verizon's been spending their resources on rolling out a lot of LTE instead of beefing up their once-a-year logistics issues. That's OK with me!