There is a registry tweak you can do to make the screen MUCH more sensitive (as a note, since I've done this, I have needed to use S2U2 to prevent my phone from making phantom calls in my pocket whenever I received a text message). Really, any lock program will work (even the stock one) but S2U2 is quick and easy to unlock.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Drivers\TouchPanel
Value = PressureThreshold
Change from the default dword:00000027 or 34 to dword:000000f0 or 240 in decimal

As found on xda:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=398265

I'm sure you could go even more sensitive with it, but for my use, I am EXTREMELY happy with 240.

Try the compact qwerty with T9 for portrait mode... it's MUCH better than the full qwerty. The same setup is on the small blackberry (pearl?) with physical keys, and only watching it used, I thought I would hate it... but using it on a touch screen becomes much nicer!

I don't really notice any dead areas on mine (manufacture date 10/13... check by going to the phone app and dialing ##786#), the top right is always just fine and I can't seem to NOT hit the x whenever I'm trying, even without a fingernail, it's good at determining what I would like it to do.