The large steps were until now, the step from Maemo 5 to Maemo 6 will be smaller. Devs can start doing stuff in OpenGL ES 2.0 and QT 4.6 right now for Maemo 5 and will be very ready once Maemo 6 comes out. No excuses.

And don't worry about the 10'000 apps myth (or even 100'000). Tell us your needs. Look at all the things that you can get with that fantastic browser and flash. We have the whole internet in our pockets on the N900. It's a computer. We aren't crippled, needing a stick (app) for every step we take.
But then I'm the first to say that I really want a cool shooter and a race game on my N900. Bounce and Angry Birds are a really good start.