Trst me you don't want the pre its garbage look at that awful keyboard.
I'm sure he appreciates you making his mind up for him, since he'll think exactly the same way you do.
Anyway, there really is a lot of uncertainty. The cell phone industry is a funny thing, and we may yet see the Pre come to Verizon...or perhaps another Palm device in the future.
As for getting it activated on Verizon's network, I'm not sure. That might be something worth looking into over at PreCentral. They're pretty knowledgeable over there, much more Pre-centric, and filled with a lot less cross-platform snarkiness.