It is unfortunate, but I was trying to remember how long the equivalent stayed open for Maemo5x?
I don't think it was very long either, it's still open now, but not for Nokia software, only community sw.

Still, bettering Maemo5x isn't much to be proud of, it was never meant to be a true commercial device like the N9.
It was always "step 5 or 6", always treated more as a learning exercise by Nokia, seems Nokia's not going to do much better for the N9.

In many ways (despite the stronger commercial push) the N9's had to face (& still does) more hurdles than the N900.
Now more than ever it seems the community will have to step-up, will it be able to, anyone's guess is as good as mine.