It's funny, when I picked up the electric a little over a year ago, I was pretty much anti-Fender. I kind of hated or scorned them. Not for any good reason, either, but just because.

Of course, I eventually had to have a Strat just to have it, then it just kept growing on me. I complained a lot about the knobs being in the way, bridge is too low, etc, but still couldn't leave it alone. Now my Strat is pretty much my main guitar. Can't say what it is, it's just something undeniable.

As far as the number of frets, I felt a bit the same way when I had my Squier, and it only had 21 frets. My Strat has 22, and my Gibson L6 has 24. I thought every guitar was inferior if it didn't have 24 frets.

Then I observed many famous players using guitars with only 21 frets and I came to realize something. I know people that, with a single brush and a few colours can create some great art. But you could hand me 57 brushes and all the colours of the rainbow, I'd create something that looked like a child's finger painting.

As usual, it ain't the tools, it's what you can do with them. :)