Killing all the bloatware is as easy as putting the Advanced Task Killer widget on your desktop and clicking it pretty much any time you put the phone away.
On the Epic's battery issue, I'm to the point where I'll end the day with 50-75% charge left. I guess these things have to build their charge memory or something. You can still blow the thing's wad in a matter of hours if you leave on a communication channel that can't connect (4G in a non-4G area, GPS inside a building, etc) but otherwise you can abuse the thing all day and still be all right.
I pulled the Stealth Guard off and threw it away. It actually wasn't too terrible once it set - I guess whatever space-age U.S. Army material they're selling just kind of expands into whatever crevasse it's been crammed into and settles into a smooth clear surface. Pretty neat actually, but it never did alleviate the stupid touch-button issue (which is Samsung's fault, really) and I kind of missed the traction of the store-brand scratchguards.
FUN FACT: I absolutely hate the feel of the screen glass. Same goes for iPhones. My fingers just stick right to it.
Thinking of getting a pack of
these Realook things, since it's the same genre of material (hard film) but covers the whole screen and supposedly doesn't do the painfully obvious refractive thing that the mainstream ones do. We'll see.
Oh and if anything's going to stop me from switching out for a BB it's that I can't imagine willingly giving up the ability to emulate almost every console up to and including the PSX on a pocket device.