I do understand that many of us are feeling upset at what happened, plot180, and I don't mean to disrespect your (or anyone else's) emotional involvement with the band and their music.
Still, I can't help feeling that much of the yapping about being "betrayed by U2" is largely melodrama on the part of overidealistic fans. Like you, I loved the band not just for the music, but also because they seemed to be decent, kind people with integrity. I still feel that way.
I don't know if this is a correct analysis or not, but bear with me: I find that U2, unlike many other groups, have deliberately made a great effort to keep fans happy over the years... I think that this inspires a feeling of personal involvement with the band. We appear to have forgotten that U2 has become a huge organisation, in business terms, with a large number of people working for them. Like it or not, the band are much more distant from us than they were many years ago - I think that this is somewhat inevitable. They are now one of the biggest bands on the planet and have been for a fair while. This is bound to put barriers between U2 and ourselves. It's what happens when a band gets ridficulously popular - there's no way on earth they can please all of us, all of the time.
The presale sucked shit from a dead cow's arse (please pardon the beauty of that charming image), as we've all said a million times. Ticketbastard buggered up and U2.com were fairly useless. I think U2's only real fault here lies in their decision to allow sales to be managed through Ticketbastard and their official website - both of which seem to be fairly lousy.
I do agree with the people who say that U2.com itself tarnishes the image of the band, by being slow to announce official news, and ballsing up membership fees, etc. In my opinion, the band ought to get the site managed by a more capable organisation.
The point of this manuscript is that we expect too much of U2. Many people have suggested that they are deliberately "screwing fans over". I disagree. I say they're human, and they make mistakes - using Ticketbastard was one of them (a fairly large one I admit). It sucks, but as far as I can see, the reality is that we expect U2 to bend over backwards to give us what we want at all times - which is unrealistic and unfair.