If they still plan to produce two devices (and it might have been the plan all along, or they were so far advanced it makes sense to).

Certainly I'm more ambivalent about physical keyboards: the screen is so small that for any extended text entry (e.g. SSH, note taking or, gasp, programming) that a virtual keyboard would really inhibit the usefulness of the device for those core use cases of mine.

However, on the flip side, the build quality and ruggedness of an N8 feels higher compared with an E7.