All in all it looks promising.
There were a couple of potential issues I saw (that retractable cable, programmability, etc.) but they have mostly been addressed thus far.
Just a few points:
* It looks like it uses a 4p4c modular connector to connenct the halves. Is that the case or is it something else? I'd love to use a nice coiled WYSE cable.
* I noticed the line of pins at the front to connect the halves. I really like that and think it's implemented better than it could have been (way to go!). Of course, it's sill a potential fragile area for failure. DO you have any thing to address this: stronger than usual leafs? a protective cover piece you can install?
Just out of curiosity: why did you choose those bendable leafs instead of (for example) pogopins that seem to be more prevalent?
Boasts about open source, but the development model is a complete cathedral so far.
Open source does NOT mean open development. I would say the biggest issue I see with the bazaar is feature creep, which is usually completely avoided with closed development / open source model. This is a very workable development strategy and I have seen it work out very well in the past.
For example, just look at the ergodox development thread.
open source / closed development is a much better idea for a hardware model, where your time to make prototypes and iterations is on the order of days / weeks, compared with minutes / hours for compiling new iterations on a software project. If someone wants to add a new feature to a software project, they can do so without greatly impacting the release timeline. If you want to make even a slight change to a hardware project, each one sets it back weeks. There comes a point where you have to call enough "enough" and push to production. With all the "noise" of peaople requesting features int eh bazaar, the cathedral makes a lot of sense here.
Keep in mind the cathedral / bazaar analogy was originally applied to open software, and I would argue that it has little relevance to open hardware and hardware design / developments.
Just my thoughts of course.