Functionality on WP7 is ridiculously bad. It's more limited than iOS! Literally. I'd rather go for iOS than Windows Phone 7 because iOS at least has apps and works better, WP7 only looks a bit better.
I'd rather use Samsung's Bada than Windows phone 7 since the amount of apps is similar but Bada works very well and devices are much cheaper because Samsung sells their Bada phones for lower than they would normally charge them even with Android on board. With Windows Phone 7 manufacturers have to pay Microsoft for their system. Not a great deal if you ask me, if you have free mobile operating systems that are far superior out there.
Also, Nokia gain positive reviews mainly because for a lot of people, especially in Europe they have that emotinal value. Their hardware really isn't great, it's very overpriced and of only above average quality. They remind me of Iphone's as far as quality and being overpriced goes. It's nothing special but it's priced like it is.
Personally I'm not feeling their latest design choices too. Screens are small, bezels around the screens are huge and they look outdated. They look much older and pretty much poor when you see them in reality.
The only positive is that they look sort of nice with those colors and that Lumia 710 looks okay, but it's crappy for its price. It comes with an average LCD screen and a 5mpx camera. Back in the days Nokia would at least go for good cameras (like N8, which is still a leader if it comes to camera qualtiy). Now they are average at everything, still use a crappy OS and still charge too much for their phones.