Agreed, Chris.
The biggest hindrance to a true EV mode for the Hondas is the rather small electric motor. It's just too small to truly propel the car, and certainly too small to move the car from a dead stop. I wish it had this capability, but mostly because OTHER people expect it to
.
The Honda system works perfectly fine as it is, it's just different from the Toyota and Ford systems. And the Toyota/Ford systems ARE better for CITY driving.