I used a Treo 650 for awhile and agree with you too. The SMS chat on the Treo was great. Pocket PC's are even worse than BB's.
I just moved over to the 8700 and love it! This, coming from a die hard PPC guy. I also set up hosting with exchangemymail.com today and the service is wonderful! It was soooo easy setting up my BB. Sorry, just had to share!