I'm no pro video guy but I will give my opinion
I've used FCP and iMovie for the last 2 years.
We shoot mainly backstage videos and instructional videos.
Working with FCP is most of the time just a huge overkill and slows me down, while working with iMovie was much faster but frustrating because I missed many editing options I did have with FCP.
Recently we picked up video more and are moving into the realm of videoclips, this is for me best done in FCP and with the multicam option that rocks and works very fast, but than we have the problem of the continues need to render, assign a look and wait, nah not ok, wait again, give it a new look, wait again. It sucks the time out of a day.
Enter FCPx, looks on the fly, color matching between clips is a simple and fast, magnetic timeline is a cool feature, keeping audio in sync. Compound clips is a nice feature to keep me from getting overwhelmed with my timeline (again I don't work on video every day).
Actually if they add multicam for me FCPx is done and I welcome every addition after that.
When I read the comments I do understand them, but most are done by the guys that need stuff like exporting to tape or XML etc. What some don't realize is that there is a HUGE market of DSLR and video shooters out there that don't need it and will stay within FCPx and will even than probably never need anything else.
My prediction is indeed that this is a version 1.
Apple will probably release a paid upgrade for multi cam, making it only "costly" for people needing it.
Apple will release an export option, add support for external monitors etc.
When I look at the massive rewrite I really don't understand the opinions that it's iMovie 2.
I wonder if those people ever really worked with iMovie.
The difference between iMovie on my iPad and my Mac is smaller than the difference between FCPx and iMovie
it does look like iMovie in some cases, it has the good features from iMovie but it goes so much further that it's indeed a new app for me with a lot from FCP and some from iMovie.
The fact it it imports iMovie timelines is I think because the structure from IMovie is much simpler than from FCP and I'm sure apple will also come with an option for FCP import, because I also have some projects in FCP of course.
I'm now using FCPX and still have FCP on my Mac for everything that X does not do, but after two days of testing and playing with it I think I will only use FCP for some quick multicam stuff. I will work the videos in x and export them as QuickTime to import as multiclips in FCP and do the mutlicam, and later insert them in x again. Yes it would be great to do it straight from x but the speed increase x gives me is just too good to pass, and seeing what I do with color/looks and matching clips is just great.