My answer is "yes, I would by the Verizon LTE Galaxy Nexus" if I had to do it all over again. And if I hadn't upgraded until now and could get it at the new lower price, it would be an even easier choice.
I should mention that I upgraded from the OG Droid, so I was probably more easily impressed with the GNex than someone coming from a more recent phone. But for me, my new phone had a much bigger screen, was thinner and lighter (even with a case on it - the Trident Kraken is what I finally ended up staying on), runs much smoother and faster with the dual core processor and more RAM, and I love stock ICS, especially compared to stock Froyo.
I could have upgraded in October, but I was waiting for the right phone. In my case, I wanted something I could easily unlock and root, and that had the latest version of stock Android. I don't flash ROMs but I like being able to use root-required apps, mainly TB, but now also Light Flow and Nova Launcher (I know it doesn't require it but some of the functions do).
The other stuff I wanted wasn't unique to the GNex: front facing camera for video calls, dual core processor, bigger screen (4" or more), more internal storage (the Droid only had 512MB). But the Galaxy Nexus was the only one I'd read about that would have an easy to unlock bootloader and stock Android, so that's what I wanted.
I've been very happy with the phone overall, but I understand I lucked out in not having a lot of the problems I read about. I do get the random reboots, and usually its not a big deal but yesterday it happened as I was answering a call, so that's definitely something I hope the eventual update will fix. The battery can drain pretty quick if I'm doing a lot, especially with 4G, but I have a charger at home, at work, and none of those are the one that came with the phone, so I also have that to take with me if I'm going anywhere else.
And even though it wasn't part of my decision to get the GNex, I'm also loving Google Wallet (but really hating when places have a PayPass terminal that doesn't work).
Sorry if this is really long, just wanted to give a thorough answer.