I do like the direction they are going in, but I am very unhappy about the delay in the 56mm lens. The X-E1 has pretty much replaced my Nikon system for most of my shooting (minus the charreada stuff for obvious reasons), and an AF portrait lens was all that was missing. There are plenty of excellent MF portrait lenses out there, of course, but they are very slow to use, especially with narrow DOF.
Also, C1 is doing an excellent job at demosaicing the X-Trans (at least for my subjects), the colors are amazing; and unlike Vladimirovich I see absolutely no reason to abandon the sensor design. As for retro kitsch, well, all I can say is that the X-E1 handles like a dream.