I completely see that laptops with digitizer screens that can be turned into tablet form factor are enhanced laptops. Laptops+. Laptops 2.0. Yet they haven't really taken off, and nobody (except me) seems to think they're cool.
Instead people (you included) want Eric-the-half-a-laptop.
Why?
The iPhone wouldn't be better with a 7" screen; it would be at home because it wouldn't fit in my pocket - after all, I really only want one convergence device and that's got to be centered around my phone because a) that's the main functional thing that I want to carry around everywhere and b) what good is a portable device without a cellular radio these days anyway?
However, I can probably sum up my reply to:
I feel unjustifiable angst that Apple might be spending some of their limited quantities of human effort building a wretched minitablet instead of any of the iPhone improvements I want to see, therefore I don't want it to happen, therefore I wont believe it even if trusted sources have actually held one.