Does this mean there's no March event?
The last few years, Apple has had half-year releases (this year, 11.3) with mostly system improvements from the various teams - this year, Animoji, iMessage in the Cloud being finally released, etc.
One of the drivers for this release is to get features and product in the hands of educators for evaluation for purchase and enough time for a fall semester roll-out. So it is pretty likely there will be a March or early April release of the operating systems, and of any iPad improvements targeting classroom rollout. Last year the iPad releases around this time were mostly focused around revising the technology while reducing cost - for instance, the screen technology dropped from the previous iPad Air.
Apple typically tries to keep announcements to a few products when possible (to maximize buzz, plus maximize wallet damage over time), so I'd expect iPad rev and possibly an AirPower and AirPod update in the next month.
If there is an iPhone SE replacement coming, I'd suspect it would be a separate event. They might also try to hold out for September to align it with the rest of their phone releases. I suspect the SE will continue to be a bit of a popular one-off, because its design constraints are more size and price oriented than say the iPhone 8 (and definitely the X).
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Goodie ... does this mean Forstall shall return to Apple and take back command of iOS?! Please say this is true!
return of skeuomorphism, in a more flat representation.
In reality, I don't know how much skeuomorphism hasn't died but been deemphasized. Skeuomorphism is useful for familiarity and is a good design starting point, but can be limiting in its value when marketing to a generation that say has only experienced music via iTunes, and not via a record player, tape deck, or walkman.
You probably won't see a return of brushed metal and felt backgrounds, or defaulting to felt marker fonts. Generally, these don't look as good as you move to more accurate (HiDPI/Retina) devices, which is one of the reasons Microsoft, Apple and Google all came up with new design guidelines around the same time. If you are hoping for the return of the wood grain GarageBand interface, you'll unfortunately be waiting a very long time.
However, layout and design still can and will take influences from the things people are already familiar with. Designs will mimic the functionality, use, and layout - just not necessarily the look and feel with textures. See the faces on the Apple Watch, for instance - some like Siri are optimized for information display, but many are built to mimic existing devices (such as the classic Mickey Mouse watch)
Curious about this lottery ... what about companies that are registered as a developer (under a single name)? Will that mean the entire team will be able to attend if the lottery is won?
Each developer applies and has a chance to win. Within a team, it is possible for the winning ticket to be transferrable (per review by Apple, likely to prevent abuse by people creating extra team members to increase the overall chances).
In past years, I've seen a few Bay Area companies rotate their engineers out (perhaps with a drawing for who attends the keynote); it is against the rules, but ID isn't really checked outside getting your badge.
