What were the other reviews that you read? I’ve seen mostly nothing but positive reviews from a design standpoint, especially in terms of hardware.
I honestly was never really bothered by phone branding as much as the mobile industry likes to grasp at what are really “issues”. I’ve been conditioned to not really pay attention to carrier or brand logos like the Nokia one (from always owning phones with it) and I think incorporating the windows phone logo into the hardware button is clever and becomes less of an eye-sore. That said, I imagine the hardware buttons will go away in the future. I do enjoy that all the branding for my phone (Galaxy Nexus) is on the back and that there’s nothing on the front expect for a black slate until the phone is in use.
Also, to be fair we are buying subsidized phones in the US, and because of that the carrier has the right to blast their logo on their product. It’s essentially a sponsored product at that point. If you wanted one without that branding, buy it unlocked if possible.