Cool...I shoulda known that if you were keen enough to source out an N5, you were up on different launchers...sorry for insulting your savvy my dude...

I do think the industry is going the wrong way by upsizing everything. 5"+ isn't for everybody...and honestly...Samsung is the only one that's really innovating in the space and actually putting the large form factor to good use... I was shocked at how they upsized the Nexus 6 like that....it's really a travesty. The first All-Carrier pure Android phone in years and they go and fck it up with a dumb large form factor just for the sake of 1-upping Samsung...

Honestly, I think you should really entertain leaving at this stage. All the carriers are assholes.....just depends on which asshole you're willing to shell out your hard earned doe to every month. Verizon is the accepted best of the majors in the DMV....but their phone selection is excruciatingly always months behind the competitors...and the phone selection will always be limited because they're non-GSM....

But if you DID switch to VZW....def. check out the Droid Turbo. My wife had the same requirements as you with respects to not wanting to go huge. The Turbo is larger than her OG Moto X was...but still a manageable size with a nice strong feeling construction. Plus it's as close to stock Android as you can get on any carrier without getting a Nexus device or a Moto X.