which point of view?

there is a big argument over whether books should be written in first person or third person. i, personally, prefer writing stories in first person. but some people say that they don't like the narrator using words like "i" or "me", for some reason that i have yet to figure out.
i think writing in first person makes the story seem more realisitc. instead of some random person telling you a story, the character is actually telling you what happened to him. you connect to the story better. also, it's easier to prtray the character's thoughts and feelings through the character's own words . if you're writing something in third-person, this doesn't always work out very well.
there are, however, two problems with writing in first person. the first problem is that, though you get to know the narrative chracter very well, you don't usually end up knowing the other characters as well as you would in a third person omnicient story. (did i spell the right?)
another problem that arises is that it's very hard to kill off a character when he's the narrator. you know what i mean? it's like "and then all of a sudden, the evil man pulled the trigger and i-"
The End.
that's not a very good ending to a book, now is it?
there is a brilliant solution to these problems, that more and more authors are beginning to use: write in first person AND third person. switch off! if the author is a good writer, this works vey well. take Jonathan Stroud, for example. his books The Bartimaues Trilogy (which i highly recommend you read ASAP) had chapters that kept switching off between the viewpoints of the characters. for many chapters, the story was in first person, as seen through the eyes of the main character, so you got to know him very well. but other chapters were written in third person, so you got the other sides of the story as well.
so, that was a strange and slightly boring discussion, wasn't it? so what do you people think? is it better to write in third or first person?