actually, oakleys does have a line of polarized glasses. they have a set of polarized straight jackets, a-wires, c-wires, minutes, eye jackets, fives, frogskins, twentys, etc.
however their polarized line is not very extended, they have very few colors/lenses types available. usually only 1 or 2 in each model.
as for the hinges, a lot of their new wires carry the hinges, not just the c-wires. i believe the a-wires and e-wires do as well (note: the NEW ones, not the older models).
REI's customer service is beyond excellent- you can buy online and if you're near a shop you can drop in and return it there w/ the receipt, even after wearing it and trying it out. i once ordered a north face jacket that was simply too large, i wore it a couple time and on the way back up to college i stopped off at an REI on the way and returned it without a problem.
as for my personal experiences with oakley, so far i've owned a set of the original e-wires (they got messed up during a backpacking/climbing trip), polarized a-wires (sold them), and original eye jackets (current use). the polarization was definitely noticeable for glare, but you really have to try and justify the added cost. my favorite were the e-wires, extremely casual and comfortable, very stylish and looked awesome. i'm very interested in trying the new e-wires 2.0. the eye jackets are the only ones i have now (with the exception of a set of Oakleys goggles for snowboarding) and work great. they're MUCH better for sports and definitely more durable. the hinges snap off instead of breaking, so you can simply snap them back in if you crush them somehow (stepping on them, falling on them, etc), to an extent of course. the biggest plus of the eye jackets over the wires is that there's a much higher coverage (put on a set of glasses, look up and down), the e-wires didn't give you coverage very far up or down, but the eye jackets completely covered your field of vision.
my friends have sets of the foakleys and you can EASILY notice the difference, they're much flimsier, the lenses do nothing, and it just feels wrong (like a set you buy from safeway). i've never gone for anything but legit full retail oakleys, life's too short to drink cheap champagne
sorry for the extended post, hope it helps