With English and other language voice acting, regardless of whether it's bad, at least it sounds like they're trying. There's also little to no variation [in Japanese voice acting] -- like they use the same 4 or 5 voice actors for everything.
I feel the opposite. There seemed to be a little to no effort in the English VAs for many, many years. The fact that there were so few quality products, and the select few that were decent stood head and shoulders above the rest, is testament to this. The pool of English VAs also seems quite a bit smaller. It might help that I watch a wide varitey of anime era wise. I don't watch that much new anime.
Though, I think Japanese voice acting is so popular just because people like listening to what they don't understand.
I can't disagree with this. Sometimes I like this to help set atmosphere if the environment is supposed to be quasi alien -- sort of like Panzerese in PD. My preference for native language isn't solely a Japanese thing. If the movie is German, I prefer German. If it is French, I prefer French. I guess it is just a purity issue for me.