I've come to Gmail with an invite too, and I fully agree with you. But I don't know yet where I would jump to. I would prefer it to be a European company.
Are you kidding? Maybe it's grown beautiful in your memory since you last saw it. 2004 gmail is fugly.
FYI, everyone was upset when it changed. That's normal human behaviour. Nobody likes change. But since then, I've learnt where the "hidden" features are, and am lovin' it.
BTW, the new Hotmail (Outlook.com) is pretty awesome too. Even better than gmail IMO.
Back then Gmail was better than everything else. Now it's an abomination which makes me want to jump ship.