Well, I never even heard of "rooting" except in the garden sense, but I have the Motorola Razr with 2.3.5. As for apps, I like the news apps from our local rag, abc & NPR, the weather channel app--really useful on the road when it's storming cats & dogs, tapatalk--of course, colornote, flight tracker--when I'm flying it's a life saver, NFL Mobile, Open Table--great to find restaurants in other cities, our local jazz radio wwoz app, and during Mardi Gras the Parade Tracker. Those are just a few. I find a new one and a new use for the phone all the time.
The Razr has a internal program that keeps adjusting to my use to make the battery life extend--really great, I don't know if that's on all droid phones but it's a really neat deal and makes the battery last all day unless I use it to bring files from my computer at work.