Used Canon 450D-500D or Nikon D90 on a budget ???

I've asked a similar question on the Nikon D90 Forum but I would appreciate the Canon viewpoint too.

On Ebay UK a budget of £450-£500 ($710-$790) will buy a used D90 with 18-105 VR lens or a used Canon 450D-500D with one or two kit lenses without VR.

The 18-105 VR may be a plus point for the D90, as it is the only lens I would need for what I intend to do - outdoor action (not long-tele), landscape and wedding/social photos. As an amateur, that is.

But I shoot JPEG not RAW so I am puzzled by the DPR D90 Review, as follows:

1) Page 20: Sensitivity and Noise Levels. They say "Up to ISO 400 all four cameras are virtually indistinguishable" but to my eye the D90 output simply looks fuzzy and faint compared with the Canon 450D. Pretty meaningless comparison - probably the same story as in my next point.

2) Page 27: Compared to (JPEG), 100/200 ISO. They say "the D90's default output is very soft, having had very low levels of sharpening applied. Canon, meanwhile, takes the opposite approach, delivering very crisp (and contrasty) images at its default setting. Other than that, there's little to choose between the two."

OK, but the D90 pics are so soft that they look out of focus to me. In fact it looks as though this test is meaningless unless they adjust the 2 cameras to similar Pic Adjust settings first?

Elsewhere they say that the D90 has a stronger AA filter than the Canons. Having struggled with a stronger AA filter when I went from the Oly E-410 to the E-620, this does not encourage me to get the D90.

But the Nikon v Canon kit lens scene seems to favour the D90 with that 18-105 VR lens, within this budget zone.

So my question is:

Can the D90 JPEG Pic Adjust settings be tweaked to compete with the out-of-camera JPEGs from the Canons? Or will the stronger AA filter always make the D90 output "softer"?

Within the budget and zoom range mentioned, which Canon lens or lenses could I get to compete with the Nikon 18-105 VR?

Mike