The NITs to this point haven't really been meant for mainstream audiences, so yeah.... you're going to have those issues.

The Fremantle device is the real test now. There's a lot more people excited for the next Maemo device than I've ever seen before. If there's a time for a Maemo device to go mainstream, this is it.

The contingency plan for when a developer is bored and moves on? Open source. If you want an app updated, go ahead and start working on it, or try to find someone that will.

(By the way, there's nothing wrong with not working on a program anymore if there's nothing else the developer wants to do with it. A program doesn't have to be new and still updated to be useful.)

Tell you what... the next application that stops being updated... you're going to be responsible for it. Oh, that's not fair? Well, it's not really fair to expect infinite support from the developer either if he's not interested in working on it anymore.