For your second point, if you really mean "locked in" (as in "my company has outsourced their email to gmail") you can always use an IMAP client.
But I guess this is just a small typo and you mean "logged in" - in which case I'm not sure I can follow? Is your point that people don't like the user interface but use it anyway because their friends use it?! Not sure I buy. If no-one forces you to use gmail, don't use it. Or, again, use an IMAP client.
There are a number of ways you can switch email addresses. You can set up a forwarder from the gmail address to wherever you want--over time this should rectify itself and in the case it doesn't, you're not really losing out on anything. Receive via Gmail, respond via your new email.
I used to use Gmail for the interface. When I received my invite, I'd never experienced anything like that in the browser. It was refreshing, cool and it worked extremely well. I'm not 'locked' into those addresses in any sense of the word and never have been.
And yes, I mean locked in, because if everybody knows you at tim@yahoo.com, or reg@hotmail.com, you can just move to gmail easily. Sure, you can setup forwarders, email everyone, but this is a non trivial step for most people. I am confused why people here can not see this.
Though I am certainly seeing where you're coming from with second part. It is a hassle that I don't think most would embark upon. I don't know but it seems switching emails could be a problem that needs solving. There certainly are ways I can think of that would make this easier.
