Having said that, I have only one major complaint with the App Store, and I can state it quite simply: the review process needs to be eliminated completely.

Joe's post is concise and cuts through all the crap and hits the nail right on the head. I'll add that Apple's challenge was: in order to break into a industry that the analysts said was closed to newcomers and dominated by RIM, Nokia, and others, they had to design an amazing product and then sign devilish pacts with ATT and other large carriers to launch them in a way they could be successful. But heres the thing: the success of the iphone and the sea change that came with it, really paves the way and points to the fact that carriers are losing their grip on the handset manufacturers. Apple, Google, RIM (maybe even Microsoft... don't laugh, they made the Xbox after all) are making the computers of the near future and they fit in your pocket. Carriers are gong to fight, but in the end they are going to end up as wireless bandwidth providers, as they should be.
So - keep the app store, dump the review process. Google's app store far superior (if not as successful) in that way.