Sock puppet here. Except I'm unaffiliated and not getting paid. Buy that's besides the point.
BFL seems to be the only complany to date that put sizable numbers of Fpgas in miners hands. And even today, they are the only company that have shipped price competitive Asics in any large quantity. Asicminer has shipped thousands, yes , but at price points where people can't ever hope to earn back their investment. Even BFLs units that haven't shipped have more of a chance at one day paying for themselves than those USB block eruptors. As for Avalon? Limited availability, much high price per hash and signficant delays as well. It's endemic. But BFL has been the only company with a track record of getting hashing power into miners hands at a reasonable cost. Delayed? Yes. Obviously. But making progress without doubt. I got mine, and if they weren't shipping at all, their forums would be ablaze with people saying they hasn't gotten their order from dates that BFL claimed to have shipped already.
FPGAs, yes. Your second point is deceptive. They aren't the only company that have shipped price competitive ASICS, and definitely not in a large quantity. I know right now it seems like BFL is the only choice for a few... But since I've invested, BFL has always been too good to be true. Maybe they built up stock and released a bunch in a day or something like that, but they are not yet at all consistent in any other terms than dissatisfying people, but still keeping them hanging on, learning to let go of the original opportunity they've signed up for. Maybe they'll become consistent in a good way at some point, but don't think the nightmare is over yet for a lot of people. As time progresses there will still be yet even more dissatisfaction, until all that is left are investors who signed up, knowing that BFL was already delayed for months to a year. Who, maybe after months to a year, will be biting their tongue.
I was signing up with BFL when I had a window into Avalon's ASICs batch 1. There are many who fell into BFL because of it its prominent advertising and its "reliability" on having released FPGAs.