If I wanted Mer I would be using and contributing to Nemo. Whilst I appreciate the work that the Mer team have put into their project, I'm afraid it's not an acceptable solution for my usage. The beauty of Debian is that it's very modular and components can easily be swapped out with an "apt-get install". Try running an init system other than systemd on Mer. It can be done but not without porting effort and even so, I doubt it they would accept it as part of their project as they intentionally have a very specific base system. Mer is also plagued by being business-focused which means they stick to outdated GPLv2 packages to allow vendors to Tivoise their products. Not to mention the array of software that Debian has accumulated over the years which you will never see in Mer.

I realise there will be many patches involved to achieve the power saving performance of Maemo but I don't see why it has to be a Frankenstein. Focusing on a specific Debian release means that it will be far less of a Frankenstein than the Etch+Lenny+Squeeze monster we like to refer to as Fremantle.

The Debian effort will be far from a Mer clone. We may have to recreate a lot of the work that others have done in Mer but it will be worthwhile in the end in order have a mobile operating system that excels where Mer and Maemo don't.