While I have wished for a connection to a keyboard for both the 41 and 48 machines, I've never had any issues with programming on the 75, 71, 95, or 200lx keyboards (admittedly, the 71 is a bit iffy in that)
I do think that having more than one way- when possible- is a good thing. And I'd enjoy it if I could use rocky mountain basic, RPL, keystroke, assembler, and a lispy language all on one handheld platform.
I might end up writing more of my code on a desktop (though thus far it's not the case in life. I'm a handheld addict.)-- but being able to, and having the best plausible engineering to do so- on the handheld, is essential to any programmable machine, IMO.
This always ends up being the one biggest problem I have with wince.... (the second biggest is the idiocy of the OS itself)
I still say that a qwerty 48/49 (say, in the 95 format, or even the 71 format with a bigger screen) would be marketable...