Warranty does not cover stupidity.
Sorry, but of course you were rejected for warranty. It is not a workmanship issue when you drop your phone.
When you drop it, you broke it. The phone didn't break because it was constructed poorly (which is what the warranty covers).
On the argument of Gorilla Glass, the HTC Aria is indeed a Gorilla glass phone. I ran mine for months without a case and screen protector and never scratched it or damaged it. I ended up dropping it once in the parking lot but it didn't end up scratched or damaged. This occurrence however encouraged me to purchase an external case for it to help increase it's durability and low and behold, it lands on it's face and cracked the touchpad right on the home key.
Everything works fine. But it's still annoying to look at as I take good care of my devices. It's important to know, Gorilla Glass is still GLASS. But it is indeed (at least in my experience) much more scratch resistant than regular glass. It may depend on when your Aria was manufactured to when and if it may contain Gorilla Glass.