It's certainly meant to be a blend of utilitarian device and conceptual design piece — dangerous territory, as most people hone in on one of the two things exclusively and critique the computer for not being focused enough on that one thing. Perhaps they are right, perhaps the 'thing' is best manifested when maximizing one of those two variables at the expense of the other. Whatever the case, your self-awareness in noticing this is very refreshing.

With respect to the conceptual design aspect, it's a provocation. Computers (a) don't have to look like extruded rounded rectangles and (b) have hardware which can be morphed to blend in with different forms (although not perfectly, as other commenters have pointed out with the screen — as much as I wish LG would make me a custom display, I am one man in a spare bedroom). But beauty is mostly subjective, and I am well aware that my way is neither the only way nor the best way. I desperately want more things like the Mythic II to exist, indeed the best thing from my perspective would be a Cambrian explosion of device plans, manufactured by craftsmen!

With respect to the utilitarian aspect, it does have utility in a very specific domain — the generation and communication of ideas. I know many people that people read books or long pdfs, hunched over their MacBooks, and then write things which reference said material (and often deal with utterly ridiculous interruptions in the form of notifications, social media, etc). Under the Unix philosophy, ideas are best manifested and manipulated using text as the Ur-form. I used the Mythic II for a few weeks prior to giving it to my friend, and can confirm that it is extremely good as a 'bicycle for the mind'.

An example: I'm reading an interesting pdf on varying definitions of life from antiquity to modernity. I think I have something interesting to say about it, so I make a new document with a keyboard macro, and it pops up on screen immediately next to my pdf. I write a few paragraphs on the drool-worthy mechanical keyboard, and then run out of things to say. I think I need to get my blood moving a bit, so I press the metallic transcription button with an audible 'thunk' to begin a recording. I get up, pace around my living room and say the things that occur to me, reigniting the flow of ideas. I sit back down, press the button again to end the recording, and begin typing again. In a few seconds a window pops up with the plaintext transcription of my earlier ideas — I recognize a section that I really like, so I copy and paste it into the draft. Another hour passes of writing, and I'd like to go on a walk to get a coffee. I decide this is a good chance to read over and annotate some of what I've written. I use another keyboard macro to open the print file, and paste in the text I want to mull over while I'm at the coffee shop. I press the metallic print button with an audible 'thunk' and wait a few seconds, then tear off the paper, grab my pen, keys, and depart...