I couldn't help but fall on the floor laughing with your statement "smoothness and usability of the E* software." I have been involved with both companies and can honestly say I think NOT....
All of the issues I have with D* are software related. And I have several. E* rarely gave any issues as far as software is concerned, and they were smart enough to make it so that an external hard drive (software unlock) was just that, EXTERNAL and used for ADDITIONAL storage.
Isn't it D* that has the commercials making it "appear" seamless when viewing the same content between rooms in your home? Lol, it's so far from that it's not funny.