Gmail or not to Gmail

I am suffering a 'whoosh' moment, that is to say the Gmail 'hoo ha' seems to be going straight over my head!

TBH I hadn't taken much notice until now, ok so it offers large storage capacity but so what. With that in mind I set about tying to find out a little more and in the top 5 Google search returns I found this.

My limited intellect has yet to sift thorough all the points raised and form an opinion but it does seem a little 'creepy'. Not exactly related but in the same vein I read this (post June 20th 2004, The danger of artists and blogs revealed) a few days ago too!

Is paranoia setting in or should we be concerned?

Can anyone tell me what's so stunning about Gmail? Am I missing something?