Ppl dont go after ICS craze if you are going to root ur device anyways (which now a days almost everyone does). All devices will get ICS eventually, in a better packaging than the ones given by manufacturers. So, forget abt that. Just go for the ones that give max performance for the budget.
Defy+ and Neo V are both the very good devices in this price range. Defy+ has the extra rugged feature and more compact of the two, and also has a 2 GB of internal memory, which is really really helpful in day to day usage. While Neo V has a better LED backlit display and a front cam.
Defy+ has more dev support, but a locked bootloader. Unless that bootloader is unlocked soon, its gonna be a pain for the devs to unleash the full potential of the device. But this is also a reason to go for Defy+ over Defy, as Defy+ has an updated GB kernel.
So, the choice is upto the personal needs.