i think, from following the debate when the info was released, the reasons for rpm package format are:

The moblin bootstrap stuff is way better than maemo and is what will be used for booting future devices and this is some of the hardest to repackage(I say yay for faster boot times!)

In order to make it easier on developers across a wide array of devices and platforms, it has been mutually decided to use the SUSE open build service.(yay for this, ask most any maemo developer about packaging for maemo and getting in repository and I think you will find that the process needs MUCH improvement)

it has been mutually decided to use zypper for rpm pacakge management which is very apt-like but also supports delta updates which is especially important on a mobile device with potentially constrained file space and bandwidth. (Yay for this so everytime we need to download an update for a package, you just need to download th changes and no the entire package)


these are very valid considerations IMO and I am sure the debate between the moblin team and the maemo team did not take the shape of a religious war.

I would say it would still be possible, even with the use of RPM for a package format to maintain a somewhat debian like filesystem layout. the two are not mutually exclusive.