The (eink) kindle is a fabulous device and in absolutely no way requires you to buy ebooks from Amazon. you can just plug it in and put Mobi files on it.
The convenience factor of the BezosBazaar can't be underestimated. I have no interest in maintaining a digital library these days, and the walls of the Kindle garden just aren't that impactful when you read maybe a dozen books a year.
Amazon also gives you an @kindle.com address you can email documents to (epub, pdf, docx, plain text…) and they’ll show up seconds later on your kindle.
