Apple IDs are a wreck and need major upgrading

A number of years ago, I created an Apple ID with a gmail account.

I then became more involved with Apple products and got a .Me account and email. I put the .Me address as a backup email address for my gmail Apple ID.

I have since become a big fan of many Apple products and recently decided that I want to go all Apple, especially as Gmail becomes a challenge to support their Conversation strategy.

I am unable to verify my .Me Apple ID because that email is associated with my gmail Apple ID. Speaking with Apple several times, it continues to be impossible to delete the .Me address from the gmail Apple ID. "We'll let people know" is basically what I get each time.

Whenever I log into support, I can't use my .Me Apple ID. I finally gave up and created a username for my gmail Apple ID. And I of course can't use my preferred username as it is associated with my .Me Apple ID which I can't use ... can't figure out that logic.

This also causes problems with iMessage and iCloud; I can't use my .Me Apple ID with Apple products.

Of course, my iTunes is tied to my gmail Apple ID and I can't move that over to .Me, either.

I want to go all Apple. Everything from hardware to software to services. But I'm stuck with gmail.

Would love for someone from Apple to contact me and get this squared away. While Apple is amazing with its hardware and pretty darn good with its OS's (though iOS 5 STILL shows deleted messages when using Spotlight Search which leads to dead messages, but that's another story), but it has to get its service business together if it wants to continue to dominate as services is where it is all ultimately get shaken out.

BIG Apple fan, want to go all Apple in support of the fully verticalized strategy of the company, please help this customer be a 100% Apple customer.