About a year ago we switched from being long time DirecTV customers to Dish. We did so primarily for better HD. At the time, Dish was the clear HD leader, but more than that, DirecTV's HD offerings were abysmal. They were below my minimum standard of acceptance given what was available on cable and Dish. Also, DirecTV's HD DVR wasn't even out yet - and what they did have sucked (a great Tivo that unfortunately did not do MPEG4, or a receiver only solution). So we switched.
At this juncture I have no intention of switching back to DirecTV. It's not about "who has the most raw channel count" anymore. Because all the providers out there have a pretty decent selection now, certainly enough to keep me happy. Picture quality is decent on all of them. So, while DirecTV suddenly has the edge on these things, the gap is no longer big enough to go through another switch.
On top of that, there are still other compelling advantages with Dish. The DVR for one. Dish's is MUCH better. Plus the new features just released (external HDD) and coming up (DishOnline and networking between DVRs) exceed what DirecTV is rolling out. My ONLY real gripe with Dish is the poor signal on Sat 129. When it rears it's ugly head, it's a pain. But hey, one of DirecTV's birds could fail tomorrow, so I'm not ready to bolt on that account.
My bottom line: this isn't a numbers game for me anymore.