The interest is to align on the API level. Then each platform will
push its own identity and strengths based on the target users and form
factors of the products released. This means that UI and pre-installed
application might differ, and in some cases even significantly.

Yes. The Fremantle API and Application Framework UI have been exposed
much before than in any previous release and we expect only to improve
the "release soon & often" principle in Harmattan. The announcement this
week even before a Fremantle final release is just a sign of this
direction.

Sure, we expect to improve and evolve based on the feedback received through various channels, the Maemo community being one of them. I agree with Jaffa that there is a lot of expertise out there and we could benefite more and better from it. However, I hope you also agree that it's sometimes too easy to find that "expertise" lobbying and it takes time and energy only to follow up and separate noise from signal. But this is what development teams do all the time, so nothing new here.

Another side effect we have seen is that showing UI concepts soon also confuse many users and even developers expecting what is actually a complete launch. So it's not that easy to fulfill everybody's expectations.