"As long as most basic features commmon to any os are identifiable in some
way"
Not exactly actionable. Pretty vague. Of course our OS will have some things
in common. You were saying that the whole experience should feel familiar.
I disagree. The whole experience should be usable. If that means doing some
things better than those other OSes, so be it.
But my main point, which you've ignored, is that we need to see what
outsiders think. Otherwise we are just making this so that we will like
it--an OK strategy, but it won't bring as many people in as possible. Maybe
you don't want that.