You can return a Kindle for a full refund within 30 days. So you've essentially got yourself a trial period. If you like it, then it was worth the $279. If you don't, then you get your money back. No restocking fee. Easy as pie.
As for getting the text onto a computer. Really? Do it the old fashioned way the rest of us do when quoting a text, do it manually.
Keep in mind that with a touch screen you need to add in either a capacitive or a resistive layer. This costs money. It also sucks power. So you can say goodbye to cheaper e-readers, not to mention the extraordinary battery life that is one of the biggest features that draws people to e-ink displays. Plus, you can highlight and bookmark on the Kindle without a touch screen, so that just goes to show that it's not necessary.
Copy and paste? It's a reader, what would you be copying and pasting? From where to what? Other applications on the reader? You're seriously getting into tablet territory here my friend. You have a certain set of needs that an e-reader is not aimed at, whereas a tablet would satisfy your needs perfectly. All you would need is e-reader software on a tablet and you're set.
We're not saying that we're content with the Kindle. B&N just released their own reader and it's a very impressive device. So there is certainly room for competition. However, based on what you've stated, you're clearly not looking for an e-reader but rather some sort of tablet device that touts an e-reader as one of its functions. Your ideas for what you want in an e-reader are unrealistic when it comes down to the most important features of an e-ink reader: simple to use, easy to read, and most importantly, long battery life. Adding in tablet-like features would totally kill the battery life of such a device. Hence why people are skeptical of what you're proposing, it simply isn't practical.