I don't see why not unless your concern is the Verizon branding on the phone? IMHO these are great media player/remote control/light gaming devices and of course you can always trade them in as well.
In terms of using it as an mp3 player or wifi "mini-tablet", I wouldn't care about the branding at all, I'm just not all
that interested in those potential uses of it. Basically, I just don't have any devices (for the time being) to control with it at home, and I rarely want an mp3 player except when I'm going "out" far enough to carry a backpack or briefcase, at which point I invariably bring along my Kindle. It's a godsend on the subway or buses, but I'm not much of a walk-down-the-street-with-headpones-on kinda guy. Though if it turns out the screen resolution is good enough to actually read a book on it, that would be pretty cool, although even if small fonts are readable, I read very quickly and a small screen would be kind of a PITA.
But realistically, I bought it primarily to see if I could in fact roll it over, so to speak, as a trade-in since I'm planning on finally getting around to giving up my trusty flip-phone and joining the telephonic 21st century. And of course I decide to do this just as VZW decides to ditch the contract/subsidy system, so now I'll have to shell out real money even though I expect to be with VZW long enough for a contract to have been irrelevant to me...
It just seems to me a little strange that VZW would accept their own, unactivated/unused PP phones as trade-ins. I mean, they still won't let you activate unused PP phones on postpaid plans, even now that there are no more contracts...
From what I've read so far on SD, it would seem that more people that not have been successful trading them in, but apparently not everyone has, so it's still not clear to me if there's actually a formal policy or not... But like I said, it seemed like a good $10 bet, so...