In principle I agree. In practice I know I've gained far more happiness from the integratedness of the amazon store, the size of their selection, and the free international internet (it's on one particular model, the kindle keyboard, which you can only buy in the US, but it still exists AFAIK) than I ever would have from running an SSH app or developing my own apps. The refresh rate makes these devices really very limited for general-purpose computing. My advice is to buy a good, open phone, and treat the e-reader as a single-purpose appliance.

I think it very much depends on how annoying other ways of watching things are to you. The main benefit to netfix is on average higher quality more access to subtitles than stealing stuff via torrents, and FAR more convenience than DVDs, especially for those of us with new enough computers to not even have DVD trays.

With Spotify the main added benefits are being able to use your own music from a home computer wherever you go, and no advertisements. For me advertisements are pretty damn annoying, but your own mileage may vary.

The reason I really love Spotify style services is that they massively reduce the friction of trying new things out. I've found a lot more music I enjoy of various different types over the last two years of using rdio / spotify than in any time period previous to that, because the cost of trying something new is as simple as typing in a search query.