Hi Paul,
One big plus re: Strings for me, its the ease with which one can mix and match things going into strings, easily append, etc. For example, on my GPRS module, I created a function that executes an AT command and then waits x number of millis for the modem / GSM network to respond while printing out the replies. With Strings, sending such commands is incredibly easy. With a char array, I'd have to work out ahead of time what the max length is that could be sent, right? Similarly, my 'duinos datalog to SD card with the main module. With a string being written, I do not have to worry re: dates, values, etc. causing a potential overflow, it just works.
So while I understand your point, I somewhat shake my head re: the IDE including a class that is known to be faulty and for which someone has submitted a fix which has been proven to work as a drop-in replacement for 2 years, which consumes fewer resources than the original class, etc.