At least it isn't near as bad as the Touch Pro. My buddy and I both had one; he still has his... His volume buttons literally fell off, and all of the chrome stripping is held on with scotch tape. The sliding screen has a slight swivel to it. And, thanks to Microsoft, all of his texts are from 1016.
Interesting, I loved my Touch Pro, the only flaking or issues with the aesthetics I had were from where it met pavement once...there's also a .cab file your friend can download that will fix the date issue...I'd post a link but I'm not sure of XDA's linking policies to other sites, just google ".cab fix for touch pro sms date," it's one of the first results.
As far as bugs and manufacturer defects with my Hero go, I've had the phone for a little over a month now and haven't anything to report...it does lag a little at times but I've yet to find a rooting process that works for
my Hero for whatever reason, it's the newest version with the "with Google" branding. The "one touch root" or whatever it was titled from unlockr didn't work, nor did the one I found on android forums.
I didn't get stuck in a bootloader or anything for either process, it's simply that neither one had any affect; I did follow both process to a "T." I'll get around to trying the tutorial I found on here (XDA) one day when I have time, although I must say, I kind of prefer the hacks and tricks of WinMo at this point.