Personally I don't care much if the N900 does not have the USB OTG. In the past I did experiment with it when using N800. (You may remember the scripts and application entries I created to switch between the host and OTG modes?) Basically, it was just a one time interest and I rarely used it since then. (And the use was just experimenting... not that it was anything really useful.) When I changed to N810 I didn't even bother purchasing an adapter to make this work. I have had the N810 now about year and a half and I do not remember a single case where I was thinking "dang... I wish I had that adapter now..."

Not to say that for some this is a very important feature. But for 99% (?) of the folks it is not.

Also, you should not forget that the USB-OTG is not the same as full blown USB port that you see on PC's. OTG officially support 100mA current for the VBUS, where normal USB supports 500mA. Lots of devices need more than 100mA. In other words, many devices will not work with OTG port. (Like many memory card readers do not...) In that case you'd need external powered USB hub.

In my opinion the USB-OTG is more or less a niche. If it was supported and advertised feature on N900 box, guess how many unsatisfied customers there would be who say "my device doesn't work!", while they do not understand the difference between regular USB and USB-OTG?