Sure, you don’t need pitchslides for everything and the Osmose also seems ot have something like an additional traditional pitchwheel. But no y-axis sensitivity, that would be a real no-go for me, just because for me it is part of MPE. But of course, you don’t need it all the time and can go a long way with velocity and aftertouch.
I think the seaboard blocks are great and you can connect more than one. But with regard to pitchslides, you can’t slide from one seaboard block to the next one, so the range is limited if you go with the blocks and connect those.
Yeah, 6 months is a long time, and then they write you emails like “so sorry, but there are some additional delays, but maybe you want to order more of our stuff instead of getting the stuff you already ordered delivered?”
Edit:
playing non-MPE instruments with MPE controllers is mostly a matter of settings (switching everything to one channel), at least with the LinnStrument. For playing monophonic melodies, you can even make full use of y-sensitivity and so on for any softsynth… Even if you cna’t change settings, in worst case it’s a matter of manually deleting parts where different notes overlap and lead to “noisy” automation.