The problem, which would be addressed by more focus on Mer^2 as a stop-gap until/if MeeGo is a viable day-to-day OS, is that it's now obvious that Mer could never have succeeded in delivering a day-to-day OS for most people.

The apps are the problem. You can see this on the Joggler with Mer 0.17 & OpenGL: you get a Hildon Desktop, you can install some apps, but if it's not ABI compatible with Maemo you're going to have a lot smaller pool of apps. Even if it did get large scale adoption, there're also API issues.

The first few iterations of MeeGo, and the core FLOSS apps it comes with, will give us an indication of whether MeeGo as a day-to-day OS for the N8x0 is viable.

Perhaps Mer^2 and using that as a place for further playing with the GL drivers will help with the MeeGo-on-N8x0 adaption layer. However, this is one that Stskeeps can best comment on - and whether he's getting/got enough assistance from the community on the N8x0 MeeGo h/w adaption layer.