One more for "I had the same Exact problem" as you described. I couldn't figure it out for the life of me. I tired 3 different ROM's and actually tried the original Sprint ROM and the newer 2.17 at the time. All of them yielded the same results, WiFi on, but I coudn't see or connect to any.
I recently, like last week just put No2Chem's 3.35 ROM on my phone, but didn't even try WiFi because I had written it off as broken.
Well, I came across this thread today and just for the hell of it knowing it wouldn't work, decided to turn on WiFi and see what happened....and to my FREAKIN surprise, I see wireless networks around me. YAY!!!!!!!!!
Now, I have no, and I mean absolutely NO idea what could have caused this. I never tried WiFi when I got the phone because I had good EVDO speeds at home, so there seemed no reason. And I didn't want to return my phone because it has the awesomest "fluke" feature of any cell phone I have EVER had.....I can hear my callers BEFORE I pick up the call....that is when the call I can hear EVERYTHING through my speaker w/out picking up the call. The most AMAZING thing I have ever had on a cell phone, I'll never get rid of this phone!!! But, looks like I don't even have to because my WiFi is now working.
Sorry I couldn't provide any other assistance
Slevin