Thank you Lisa!! I don't know how you know so much about 'normal' churches, I know you don't go to one! But your points are exactly right, about mine and many others.
Doctrine was important to me when I was leaving JW's, and I spent a lot of time and passionate energy researching and proving to myself and my family that the witness doctrine is screwed up. Their doctrine is NOT one of the few things they have going for them. If I was going to name a few things, I think it would be ability to find their way around a bible (a skill learned from their practice of matching up scriptures all over the bible that don't actually go together), and the fact that they are a cult helps people feel close to each other (even tho this is usually pretty superficial and if you start diverting from the group views, they start dropping from your life like flies.)