Well, if you didn't notice/care about lack of apps on N900, you won't notice it on N9 too. In fact, it's -imho- in a much better state than N900 once was. See my-meego.com, it's a pretty good source to check new apps.

- Gpodder: already ported and pretty good, looks much better than N900 one.
- MMS: built-in
- RSS Feed: Built-in. Also you can get a Google Reader client from Store.
- Multimedia player: Huh? Do you ask for an alternative? (obviously it has a built-in player) Anyway, yes there are some alternatives, but no, none of them support equalizer yet.
- Faircrack & Cleven: afaik not yet, but I guess they'll come soon
- Skype call: Audio possible. Video not yet (maybe never)
- Mail: Works pretty good, but lacks some features such as flagging
- Web browser works pretty good, it's very fast, but lacks flash player.
- kmplayer: dunno.