Verizon is now allowing you to activate unlocked phones that will be upgraded that you don't buy from them (such as the new Nexus phones and the Moto X Pure.)
If you can find a carrier with decent service at a better price than Verizon, of course you should go for it. But Verizon is getting better as time goes on, but I know I won't buy a Droid brand phone again until Verizon shows me that they will keep it upgraded aggressively. (Forget the lollipop delay - for six full months we Droid Maxx users suffered from a buggy 4.4 update - that was a quarter of the time it was my active phone. 4.4.4 has been pretty stable, but I still had problems with it occasionally.)
