MF is not the best for everything, it is just a specialized tool. So best in a very few domains. And sadly not my main one (night portraits).
About Pentax being a small company, sure it is. But it is certainly not a reason to not do anything new (in the current product line).
The best way to die is to not try/do anything. Look at the american car companies: they continued to produce car as they were doing 20 years ago, without improving their technology, trying to be in advance on the market and finally offering to the costumers what they want before they even know it themselves. Today they are dead, or must be dead (thanks to US government to keeping them alive).
Pentax has a very big problem today: nobody knows them as a
dSLR. Even in Japan, people don't really know them in the digital world, when I show them my camera they are usually amazed that it is a Pentax and not a Canon or Nikon! They still think about Pentax as an "old film camera maker". Pentax need to show to the world that they are "back" in the top league of digital photo makers. And here enter the 645D...
Today Pentax revive 645D. It is a great success. Many people bought one in advance. More will buy one during the next months, since for the price of an equivalent MF in another brand (with even maybe a better IQ for Pentax!), you can get the 645D
AND 2 or 3 good lenses! Today, whoever need a MF body in the world is of course considering Pentax's offer. Furthermore, many professionals started to use MF a long long time ago, on film era, and still have some 645 lenses waiting for a new body.
In Japan, this new camera is not only a commercial success. This is also a marketing success. You can see the 645D everywhere, newspaper, TV, commercials on electronic leader shops (ex: Yodobashi Camera). Now, people know that Pentax is back.
But still 645D is a camera targeting essentially professionals (quite expensive...
). So within a few months, the buzz will be gone.
Now, if they decide to release a "cheap" FF camera, what will happen (in Japan*)? People will know that Pentax is back (again
), not only for professionals, but also for "advanced" users (as every japanese want to become later), with real intentions to produce advanced and innovative products (compared to before). So people will feel more confident in buying (again) Pentax camera.
I would also say that presenting only 2 models (Kx and K7) is a suicide on long term. Because people can want something under Kx (as cheap as possible), or between Kx and K7 (if they don't like Kx and the absence of AF spot for example) or above K7 in APS-C range (animal shooting, good AF) and in FF range (high iso/high DR shooting. And high resolution?). Today, Nikon has 7 models, Canon 9 models, Sony announced they want 10 as soon as possible (probably this year). Even Olympus still offers 6 DSLR models (without Pen!). People want to have choice. No choice, no buy.
Hoya wants to make money with Pentax. And I would even say "a lot" of money since Pentax is probably one of the biggest department of Hoya Corp now. But to do that you need first to spend a lot in an aggressive product line and marketing. They know that. Angevinn is right: the old "digital era" Pentax is dead. Cannot survive with such strategy in the actual fast moving (electronic market) world. So I am expecting them to do what is needed to expand. Or they will die. And we will know very soon... (Photokina in September)
* Remember that Japanese market is essential for Japanese companies. No success in Japan means death (or strategic reorientation) of the company.