You hit the nail on the head pretty much. Hinge reliability remains a concern, although no problems so far.
the no home back button is annoying but easily worked around. The fans only effect is that it will annoy you but easily turned off. I haven't used the slide pads a lot, I've mostly played about 40h of FF7 and the top screen having side bars doesn't annoy me. bigger battery has a big but, mine died at 40% twice without warning. and I'm not alone in that. pocketability is great (in short pants anyway, it's summer).