Correct, and we plan to keep all that, and add some more maybe
We're aware about that and working on it. It's one of the adaptions that Neo900 needs since GTA04 is not on par with N900 here. Actually this particular point is a bit problematic since GTA04 WLAN chip ate the eMMC interface. (open WLAN chips are hard to find and you don't have much of a choice about the interface). We're still in the early evaluation phase and already doing tasks we actually shouldn't do before we see a certain level of interest that makes the project likely to happen. But hey ;-)
That's an easy supplement that just needs layout on PCB. We however will improve the kbd matrix slightly to avoid the N-key rollover problem described in http://wiki.maemo.org/N900_Hardware_Subsystems#Keyboard
Adding simple IRTX is a nobrainer (I'm puzzled about it missing in GTA04?) I think GTA04 already has option for IrDA aka IR-rx/tx (on RS232). We will add sth like that to Neo900
so far correct
actually not. GTA04 has 4 LED units, while N900 has 3 units in the 3-color indicator LED plus 6 LEDs to illuminate kbd. (plus the IR-TX LED, see above). we'll adapt that to be on par with N900, so you don't miss any functionality in Neo900.
one of the key features. Why "quite"? If anything isn't as open as it should be, please holler. This (GTA04) project is based on OPENmoko and called OPENphoenux. We take pride in being as open as we can reasonably be, we even select our chips according to their openness, which is sth not that many customers really grok instantly incl all the implications. Back when, we had a hard time accepting the glamo chip's NDAed manuals and gone that route only because there simply was no open GPU available. Same goes for GPU of TI-OMAP. But the device works without using the closed blob 3D-accel libs, so we can ignore our pain in the belly.
I don't think so, but we are inmidst the evaluation process right now. One problem is camera, the GTA04 has only a "crappy" 1.xMP cam. We might not be able to source equivalent to what Nokia used in N900, particularly when it shall be open. We need to see if we can get original N900 cam modules. I guess they must fit into the circuit since they did on N900 ;-)
Sure thing, things like these are a nobrainer, we will give great care to improve all those little annoyances. I'm famous for exactly such stuff. My title at Openmoko on my businesscard been "Hardware & Synergy"
Well, look at this very thread ;-)

Thanks for your very helpful post
cheers
jOERG