I'm totally down to buy this phone and yes, I get the criticism. Honestly there's room for 4 front facing speakers, two tweeters, and a amplifier in the bezels. (I'm kidding, but only kinda). Personally I think the speaker is likely of high quality but again, it's not the number, it's location. A lot of people wouldn't be bitching if it were facing forward like it logically should. The single front facing speaker on my Turbo is total crap, but I'd bet if transplanted with the bottom fire speaker on this phone it would be awesome.
I just don't understand the choice, personally. Kind of like the cloth cover on the ear speaker. I'd like to hear from an engineer as to why this was the chosen design features.