I can't help you if you don't find facts and truths relevant. For the "N9" to be a believable flagship device, Maemo would have to be decided as the future Nokia smartphone OS at least 5 years ago. 5 years ago Symbian dominated the smartphone market, so that was out of the question. Even today Symbian is the most widely used smartphone OS.

But, history has shown very clearly that Nokia simply could not (for whatever reason) create the ultimate OS. Not fast enough and not good enough to compete with iOS and Android, therefore WP. But, very ironically, the Symbian-running N8 refused to die, and with Belle, it is among the best devices you can purchase. All the other Symbian devices fall short some way or the other, but not the N8. The N8 is still up there.

If the N9 did have Belle UI (but still running Harmattan), it could maybe stand a chance, but with Swipe it cannot. Very few will honestly recommend Swipe because it is not practical. Only fanboys would, the rest will say the same as me.