That's one way to view it. Apple is amongst the few companies that puts an extraordinary amount of effort to get their polish in before release. Apple isn't immune to throwing out test cases, though (see MacBook Air). N97 is obviously amplied refinement of 5800. Should have they have waited? All depends on their forecasts and if this is a foot-in-the-door or their actual final endpoint on the touch for S60. Their sales expectations would be interesting to know.
5800 and iPhone aren't aimed at the same consumer. N97 owners might have better cause to complain since they're in a far more similar target demographic. I already have a big list of reasons why an iPhone isn't suitable for me (and posted them a few pages ago)...
Speculating, of course, but I'm dubious we'll see an OS update with full OS kinetic scrolling myself, but it's possible for a future revision of N97 (possibly with 8mp). More likely they'll do an N98 next year or in 2011. Nothing wrong with waiting or getting the new iPhone if that's a critical feature for you.