I haven't tried out a netbook, but the reason I don't turn off my Macbook is because I can simply close the lid, and I'll immediately get a login screen when I open the lid. Boot time is the least of my worries.
I feel the same way; but I suspect people in different parts of the world might think differently.
E.g., in my experience, some people have been very vocally opposed to the idea of leaving computers on overnight owing to the energy wastage etc. They were all from Europe, and from precisely the same types of environments where we would usually leave our machines on permanently (eg postgrad university labs).
Not to generalize, but I wonder if (at least at that time) there was not more sensitivity to such environmental issues in Europe.
Unfortunately (at least on PCs) the suspend-resume functionality just has never seemed to work properly ...