I just got this phone not too long ago myself, and I can assure you that it's worth it.

With regards to the hotspot @ home, you don't need the $19.99 plan in order to make calls over wifi. the plan gives you unlimited minutes while on wifi, but if you don't have it, the minutes come out of your regular bucket of minutes. Although, if you make a lot of calls, you have to watch the minutes closely, as they take a while to be update wifi minute usage.