Originally posted by Chris Mak
You are right, it will of course not effect all the APS-C users, and with the K70 and KP, Pentax will still continue to attract new APS-C shooters, that can upgrade at a later stage to the K1 platform, which in the past was not an option. I had to venture into Sony FE mirrorless myself in the past, when the FF camera was only rumored, but never materialized.
The part of the wildlife, sports, kids around the house, birding APS-C crowd will most likely have to decide whether the KP platform is enough, which could still be the case.
I might get a lot of good shots with the DA560 on the KP with battery grip.
But that last part has, even though I played with the idea, become a bit odd.
In short: APS-C shooters in general could have had so much more. It;s a good moment in time, prior to CP+ 2018, to re-evaluate....
What shots are you unable to take as a result of working with your existing body, Chris? I ask that not just of you, but of anyone waiting impatiently for the next APS-C flagship to arrive and potentially looking at the EXIT sign. I'm not suggesting you and others wouldn't benefit from a K-P or other newer body, but what would you expect (or hope) it could do that would really
transform your photography as opposed to offering incremental improvements in certain areas?
I take quite a lot of shots in low or less-than-ideal light (we seem to specialise in such lighting here in the UK

), so I'd love to have better high ISO performance from my cameras. But my K-3 and K-3II do pretty well, and careful (dare I claim "skillful"?) post-processing gets me very pleasing results at ISO 6400. Depending on the subject matter, I'm even happy shooting them considerably higher than that. Would I benefit from the high ISO performance of the K-P? Sure. Have I bought one? Nope. I can work with what I have, and I don't feel I miss out much for the few occasions where my K-3/K-3II and Lightroom or Darktable can't cope...
And then there's the glass. There's a handful of Pentax lenses I've grown quite attached to. I'm used to the field of view and how they will render in certain situations, and I don't want to give them up. To a large extent, my camera bodies are secondary - they're just digital backs for those lenses. I don't know how attached you and others are to their lenses, but for me, it's a big reason to stay with the brand.
Anyway, for those frustrated by waiting for a K-3II replacement, I hope one arrives sooner rather than later, and I hope it offers everything you wish for. I may even buy one myself in a few years' time - when it's about to be replaced and reaches an acceptable close-out price