When I was in, it always bothered me how much effort they seemed to put in to explaining why it wasn't a cult.
I had a similar reaction to one of the magazine covers, while I was still 'in'. In a way, it actually started me on the way to give voice to the doubts in my head. The cover showed a young couple in what was obviously door to door work, and the title was (to the best of my recollection), 'Are Jehovah's Witnesses a Cult', or something similar. That cover and article probably did more to convince me that it was more of a cult than anything I had really paid attention up to that point.