It is what it is to the person using it. Customize it to your needs.
For me it's a pocket linux computer that makes phone calls.

That said, I use it for about 15-20 calls a day or about 2000 min/mo and it works very well as a phone for me, at least as well as the G1 it replaced. If you use VOIP like Skype, it might be the best thing on the market.

To me the message from Nokia is that as Maemo matures and grows it is - or soon will be - versatile and powerful enough to allow the device to be almost anything you need/want it to be. I like that message.