I used to code using on-screen keyboard with fingernails on my old Neo Freerunner. It maybe wasn't the greatest programming experience ever, but it worked for me and I had some great debugging sessions while in tram :) I can't imagine doing that if Freerunner had capacitive screen - even if there wouldn't be a bezel around the screen anymore.
People seem to hate resistive screens based on their experiences with poor ones (which is understandable, as most of them are pretty poor). However, a good one is a real pleasure to use, and I find the one used in N900 a good one.
In fact, I'd wager that the two are very closely correlated: the need to tinker and the desire to do so with sane input devices.
Personally I've always found the physical keyboard to be far more productive and have wondered why smartphone manufacturers didn't keep on making them.