I think the number of buttons isn't going to be a big problem. I have a Liquid Foot LF+ 12+ now, and the ability to switch layouts and see what the current function of each button is right on the scribble strips is awesome. I've never felt lacking for buttons with 12. I had the Jr+ first, and 8 sometimes was a little on the low side, but even that wasn't bad at all. The ability to customize it per preset and set all that up on the Axe side, stored with the preset, makes it even more powerful. I could technically do per-preset layouts on the LF, but that's too much of a pain to manage. Being able to have it in one place, stored with the preset, and thus you shouldn't need to keep things manually sync'd between the two, I think per-preset layouts will greatly reduce how many buttons people need.
My only (severe) disappointment is the 6 x 2 layout. I would have greatly, greatly preferred a 4 x 3 layout (like the LF+ 12+) so it isn't so wide. I realize we're only seeing artist renderings and don't have dimensions yet, but it seems to me that there will be quite a bit of wasted space on a pedal board, since you still need a 12-14 inch high board for your expression pedals.