Standby Screen, swipe UI and form factor (size and curved edges) are for me the standout features on the N9 which make it delightful, but haven't been replicated in combination on anything since.

X Compact doesn't have AMOLED so can't do Standby Screen

When I jumped off the Jolla train I went to a Z5 Compact (boxier than the XC) and it was great, but I missed the standby screen from N9, and obviously in Android there was no swipe multitasking from N9/Jolla.

As this here more and more turns into a good-old-times thread:
N9 was form factor wise perfect and I loved to use/carry it despite aegis (which was not a problem at all using open kernel). But it did not replace my N900. Maybe - no definitely if had seen the light - the N950 would have replaced it. But I still miss HW keyboard and I do hope for a second FxTec (Pro2?) to be in that form factor.
Even it would still be a regression with that SFOS in its state of today.

Nowadays my daily one is a XA2 (the XA2+ is just too big and uncomfortable to carry - the reason for not going Pro1 )

But my N900s, N9s and N950 (some of them as new) will always be part of my life and I miss them every day...

Please elaborate.

I would still buy any N9 look-alike successor, regardless of specs and OS.
Other than that, It's been a decade. My note 9 is about 1.000 times better, has a ton of great features, the amazing S pen, swipe UI, curved edges, AOD etc, so there's nothing that i miss anymore.
It's just thre nostalgia part for me.

What is amazing about those pens?
I have seen them once or twice in use ever one with a guy showing it off to me, I think most people universally use their sausage fingers for most stuff, not unlike how we, N900 users, still use the fingernail over the stylus most often. What do we gain with a pen, and is it special hardware or just conductive stuff to interact with the capacitive matrix?

Off topic of quote...
Is there anyone still using FM tx or is it considered outdated like the RCA composite video outs I have only used a few times on vacation(who carries that cable?) where it seems cool but rarely used? There is a car rental place near me and to get their only manual transmission(I hat automatic transmission like I hate no CLI, give me the power) car I have to accept a car with a messed up aux port and ancient non-A2DP bluetooth which only does the worst headset mode for calls not music. But I can use FM tx to get my music and shuffle it with my Pebble watch.

And way off topic I find that A RpiW with the USB stick hat and an acrylic case and heatsink jacks into a USB charger or the TV's USB port is smaller than the composit video cable even with a short HDMI cable and lets me boot OSMC/Kodi if I am at a hotel. Get a mini bt game controler and it is all about the size of the N900's cable in your pocket or bag.

Really? Did you marry someone purely because of their looks?

Citation required.

Obviously I cannot speak for anyone else, but I used the stylus all the time. Including to make a call. The only time I used fingers was to accept or reject an incoming call.

Most often used finger. But also sometimes the stylus especially for programs not optimised for clumsy fingers but just compiled for N900. Never nails

Without pen, it's like child fingerpainting. With pen it's like real making something. The pen was one reason why I moved from N950 to N900. I like these N900 programs that you have to use pen like Milkytracker or MyPaint.

This is just a personal testimony and there may be more than one reason. I am also minded of not conflating coincidence, correlation and causation.

But...

When I eventually succumbed and switched from my N900 with Maemo, a keyboard and a stylus to Jolla with Sailfish and a slab of glass, I stopped producing stuff and turned to a mere consumer.