It runs a 4 inch qHD LCD screen, 1.2ghz dual-core snapdragon S4,
sense 4.0 with android 4.0.3,
1GB ram
8mp. camera with all that fancy HTC stuff
overall it looks like a worse phone than the SIII at same price.
BUT its HTC...
I don't see the "worse" part

4" qhd is smaller, but that isn't "worse". A full HD screen would be wasted on a 4" screen, so there's no point there.
Sounds like pretty close to, if not the same processor, just underclocked. No clear winner there.
RAM? Ok, Galaxy with 2. Pretty impressive actually.
Camera. I think HTC makes better camera software. Imagesense anyone? But with both at 8mp, no clear winner again.
And you said it with "...its HTC"
It isn't a contest. They're very different phones.
I'm actually surprised how many people jumped ship here for the SIII.