It's really just a status symbol because it's invitation only--but even now that's not really true because sites like Gmail Invite Spooler and GmailSwap take all the social interaction out of the question. And 1 GB on a free webmail account is nothing new. There are several others that offer it and some biker community offered a free
terabyte of storage (I'm not sure how that panned out).
Many people love the java-based interface, but since I route all my mail to a POP client anyway I never see it.
Anyway, I've got some invites to share as well. PM me with your email and I'll send them.
Previous HA Gmail thread