Sorry, I'm cracking up here - it's like 'that time of the month' though with the forum and VM it's more like 'that time of the year.' It's like Jan/Feb every year people get all wound up and have to have a pop at VM for one thing or another - it goes in cycles.
Reading through this thread and the complaints about Sky Atlantic (and discussing calling retentions to find out what deals people might get) is giving me flashbacks to Jan to Mar 2007 when everyone was throwing their dummies out about losing Sky1 in spite of the introduction of the new V+ box being introduced at the time which revolutionised TV watching/recording (IMO).
I think VM has taken HUGE strides over the last 4 years overall in service and what it provides, and especially in the last few months. They eventually got Sky1 back and weren't held hostage to Sky's ridiculous price demands. We now have more HD content has been provided (though I'm hard pressed in general to see a huge difference between the HD channels and the upscaled regular channels even on a top of the range TV). The Tivo has been a huge investment - and there will likely be teething programmes which more people will throw their dummies out over, but what an incredible investment for something to take things even further.
So what if we don't get a channel or two. It's certainly not quite as bad as Sky taking up a ton of series halfway through production and then us not getting them (ie Lost and Prison break when we lost Sky1). These are brand new series. So we're not getting some new things that are going to show. We may get them eventually we may not. Other channels have caught up with Sky in the sense that they are often now showing new seasons in line with the US rather than months later (which was originally the draw of Sky1).
Of course I'd like to get Sky Atlantic and it would be nice to see some of these new series I've heard about, but it's not the end of the world, and if you can't find something else of interest in the several hundred other channels then there must be something wrong.
I just don't get it.
And as others have said, if you don't like it you don't have to stay. But I seriously don't think I can get the same value for money elsewhere - even if it does mean I'm short a channel or two.