But I don't necessarily have a computer with me when I want to do something in the guts of my N800, so SSH won't help me at those times. emelFM2 will.

There may be better alternatives than emelFM2 that could be ported to Maemo -- my knowledge is very limited in that regard. But I know that it serves a purpose for me not served by command line nor by SSH, and that, unlike other potential Linux file managers, emelFM2 has been ported to Maemo.