What a decisions Mr Murray (and his team) has to make.
David and the team have put lots of effort in to Phase 1.
Phase 2 with maybe only 1 expansion port could prove disappointing at some point.
Phase 3 is a hardware emulator.
The X8 has too many missing bits compared to the X16.
Some points to ponder:
Is it a good idea to potentially fracture the user base? Look at what happened to Sega in the 90’s.
The front page of the X16 website uses words such as inexpensive, reliable, real CPU, classic chips.
Do any of the options really match all of these yet?
The current Phase 1 has issues, such as things not working properly, parts availability and so on.
It will also cost too much for most except retro enthusiasts and many in this community.
Is there another option not yet considered?
How difficult would it be to do an X8 on a board with a few other nice to haves?
Like the best of X8 and X16 merged.
For example, an X8 (maybe enhanced) replacing the X16 VERA and 65C02S, stuck on a board with extra RAM, YM2151, SNES controller ports and some expansion slots.
Simplify anything can be, such as the RAM bank switching.
Now it’s basically an X16 with a 12MHz CPU and cheaper/easier to make.