You might not like JavaScript and you might not like HTML, but the impression I get from what Palm's told us so far is that the Pre will use Javascript as its application language and HTML5 as its display interface. It also strongly implies that there will be Javascript libraries that will be able to access hardware or the OS more-or-less directly.

Your argument is that people complained when Apple said that the iPhone was going to only allow web-based third-party applications. Unless I'm mistaken, their implication was that you got no more interface to the hardware than any normal web browser would. There is a huge difference between those two standpoints.