I think people are looking at this all wrong.

Sony is looking for new ground to differentiate itself in the smartphone market. Their "open hardware" wing is working closely with Jolla to provide OFFICIALLY SUPPORTED images for Xperia X and several other models in the same Xperia family. This is a test, nothing more, to determine whether or not they want to release branded devices with Sailfish already baked in.

If either dumped everything into it without gauging interest, well... you know how that would go. Jolla and Sailfish would have another mark against them and then this chance will have been wasted.

I for one am very excited to get Sailfish on modern hardware. Even if that means doing it myself with officially supported images.