You can see their logic though. Even one button means you have to give up a whole inch with of space on the phone. I don't see Google removing the side buttons (assuming the Motorola Xoom is where the phone is headed in terms of button design). So you should always be able to do a hard reset if nothing else.

For the record I can see Google's point but I agree with you. The irony of the Xoom is the ever present software buttons take up as much room as the hardware buttons do.