I haven't really been following the openmoko development, so I guess this might best be answered by dos?

Have there been any attempts to run maemo on the GTA0x devices by the on community in the past? And if so, what big road blocks were found?

We know that there have been attempts to run maemo on other hardware before (even the identical Palm Pre) with little to no luck, so I do believe that the "Proof of concept" device for now should just be having Fremantle running on an existing GTA0x chipset. Once this can be proven it would help more people realise the dream and make a commitment?

On a more light-hearted note... Can you imagine engadget running yet another "n900 the phone that will not die" article if this takes off?