You didn't seem to like your original iPhone. That's ok. I, for one, loved my iPod Touch. It had a full-fledged iPod music app that really worked flawlessly with podcasts and my large music library. I even paid for the update that gave me calendar, mail, and contacts because I wanted to read my emails on the go. Maps was wonderful, there was great YouTube app to watch videos in bed, and Safari worked ok while we were all waiting for responsive websites.
Of course the App Store was an explosion of functionality, but there was a lot to love about iOS before third-party apps appeared.
I liked my original iPhone prior to the launch of the App Store—but it was only jailbreaking and adding a lot of features via Cydia that made it a keeper, even after the launch of the App Store.
iOS was largely lacking for many years. No copy-paste until 2009, no multi-tasking until 2010. It was rough, even as a diehard Apple fan at the time.
There were countless times that I had phone envy—paying more to get considerably less functionality didn't sit well with me at the time. It definitely felt like a toy at times. Everybody wanted to play with the gimmicks like drinking a virtual beer or swooshing a lightsabre, or playing Tap Tap Revenge or Angry Birds, but as a daily-driver phone for productivity and not screwing around, it was pretty lacking.
This was the era when you bought a "smartphone" to do productive things, not screw around. I also liked my PSP, but it wasn't a productivity device, despite having a pretty kick-ass web browser with Flash support and a decent-sized screen.
Of course the App Store was an explosion of functionality, but there was a lot to love about iOS before third-party apps appeared.