That's the key, you said it yourself..."It is what it is" once one accepts that and approach a camera on it's own terms, you have a relationship, gotta work at it. I've had an M9/Summilux 50, stunning pictures, a lot of work focusing for me. X1 is close to the Leica in terms of image detail, but not a look, in my hands the Sony did what it was supposed to do but no more, most of the images left me unmoved, now that's just me mind you. I personally find I can happily snap photos all day with an M9 or these little X series and I smile when i see most of them. The colors and rendering are very pleasing to me.
Yes...you are right...and I hope I made that clear...that part of the issue was that it does a certain thing...and I either bond with that certain thing or I don't. I did the same thing with the Fuji X100S...I love to take close up wide open shots and it most certainly fails in that particular task...it excels at a lot of other things but that precluded it from being my main camera.