Definitely will still work through iOS devices.
(I can just see Steve on stage had he still been around, talking about "now how many times have you lost the remote, well no more, because you can just use you phone.")
The touch screen remote is a good idea especially for the key board and # pad, because I can see having to navigate one on the screen being a complaint.
Was that much of a complaint from ATV2. I have one and use it often but I'm too lazy to complain about things like that.
Yeah, I think navigating with the ATV remote is awesome. The only thing that is a huge pain is entering text. It takes forever to look up a youtube video. That is why I think the keyboard is necessary, unless Apple can think of a better way though (not sure if Siri is reliable enough yet for data entry like this).