I was going to buy a Sony A65, but the D7000 went on sale...

Nikon and canon are market leaders and this way can offer less for the same money, and despite that there will be many people who defend Nikon and Canon ( who says something bad about the system he owns since years ? and those who own Nikon and Canon are the majority in the DSLR field ).

Sony is trying to get more market share and because of this Sony offers more, but then you dont have what everyone and his brother has. Having what everyone has is seen as an advantage in photography, this makes those photographers more self-esteemed.

For me, in-camera HDR would be important, but on the other hand i still do not have a camera with that, so my argument about HDR is a bit inconsistent.

Also there is the EVF versus OVF difference ( see other threads ).

Just one thing, I would not base the decision because the one or the other camera is "on sale".