Originally posted by rjm The NEX-7 is a pretty amazing piece of kit, and that's coming from someone who generally dislikes Sony's fussy, walkman-esque approach to camera design in general and the NEX system in particular. The three command dials (one front, two aft) are a simply brilliant idea, giving you ISO, shutter speed, and aperture control simultaneously, no shift-press. It's also a solid metal brick, and has a EVF, all in a just-compact-enough-to-be-compact-without-being-cramped size. So yeah I'm not surprised it his preferred camera. It's that slick.
Well, I think the question has less to do with the dials and more to do with the ergonomics of large lens/small camera body versus small lens/larger camera body. As of right now, there just aren't very many lenses available for the NEX 7 with ability to mount/auto focus without an adapter. Pentax has quite a few (all their lenses, basically).
Clearly Pentax is behind Sony when it comes to technology. The K-01 is probably just a hair behind the NEX 5 in terms of technology. However, if they continue down the mirrorless path they have chosen, EVF can be added and other improvements as well. However the size of the camera (keeping the k mount dimensions) will not change, nor will the lens sizes change more than slightly.