It has been proven in psychology and in marketing the greater choices a user has the more problematic it is for decision making. Until something negative comes along and forces them to choose (e.g. a kid that is in front of the candy rack that has many choices will be immobilized because they can't choose one out of all their favorites. Yet tell them you will leave in 5 minutes and if they haven't chosen by then they'll choose one). But that doesn't mean that they don't like choice.

And yes, I fear Maemo has the same fate as the iPhone in the long run. That it will be in its own little marketshare world while an OS like Android that can run on nearly everything dominates the market (like Windows does now).