It doesn't have to be that way. There are ways to get around this kind of thing, thankfully. While I may have my problems with both MorphOS and AROS, they have the right idea - skirt the whole thing by re-implementing the software cleanly. And Minimig and NatAmi are doing the same thing for the hardware end. The Amiga might have a future without the Amiga name on it, but it may still have a future.
Problem is, virtually no one knows about MorphOS or AROS, same too with minimig. Outside of the community (and to a lesser extent the Alt OS crowd), these projects might as well not exist. Even Amiga's brand name recognition is fading due to time.
There is a generation of kids who were born after the demise of C= who are now preparing to enter higher education (A levels etc), in a few short years they'll be graduating from universities. These kids have never seen or heard of Commodore, Amiga, or anything else of that era and likely never will in their lifetime.
The problem with the whole retro scene is that it's a fad. It'll pass, but more than that other, more modern kit will become the retro systems of choice as time goes on.
It seems to me that you're working off a different definition of "dead" than most of us. Dead as a mainstream computing platform, sure. Maybe even dead as a commercial product (though we'll see about that.)
No, that pretty much covers the definition I'm going on. Add to it the above as well.
But it still has an active community (if not as active as the CBM 8-bitters) pouring time and effort into it, and I don't think you can call anything with that truly dead.
Watch me. Amiga is dead. It has a great retro following I agree. One that'll likely continue to produce some really innovative stuff (see that guy with the ZX Spectrum running a twitter client at the vintage fair, for instance), but ultimately, it's finished.
Sorry if it offends, but that's how I see it.
