I think there truly is something to be said for a phone with s-off / unlocked bootloader as opposed to root only (i. e. Droid X). Alot of folks, myself included, jumped on the X in hopes of being unlocked. And thanks to people much smarter than myself, there was somewhat of customization available in spite of Moto. I do believe however that alot of folks will not make that same mistake twice....if the Bionic has a locked bootloader, it will not receive near the support simply because the SGS2 is unlocked (as far as I know).
I do not believe the Tbolt, nor any other phone, will reach the top of the mountain where the OG's throne sits, but the Bolt has potential to be the "O4G" when ril is properly merged. When that happens there will be an explosion of developement on this phone. AOSP Roms will be everywhere, which is a great thing. I only hope JRummy will bring his dev skills to the bolt, as his roms were hands down the best IMO for both the OG and the DX. Just my $.02