Lane, I agree with you on the all of the issues including that there are several items I too prefer to see addressed before IMAP or HTML improvements. But both IMAP and HTML are most likely having to be better supported some time in the future.
There are other bugs and improvements I'd like to see fixed, but that's another post. Tech facts: PM 5.5.3 Swedish | OS X 10.4.5 | Powerbook G4/550Mhz | 1GB RAM | 80GB HD