Exactly.

I understand that they started to make apps available for the N770. The first and only effort was tkcPanels http://www.thekompany.com/embedded/tkcpanels/index.php3

From what I could see, there were not alone in this. Several developers supported the N770 and then stopped when the N800 arrived.
e.g. http://www.dejadesktop.com/

Possibly to do with incompatibilities in the two platforms?

It must be hard for a small software company to commit resources to a project and then see the goal posts moved shortly afterwards. But this is conjecture on my part, I am sure others on this forum will be more knowledgeable on the issues of making N770 apps work on the N800.

Whatever, it is clear that the initial surge of enthusiasm for the NIT platform quickly died.