It's better than a status bar on top of the keyboard. Sure it looks cool, but what extra productivity do you get from it?
This could have a lot of value. Think about something like Lightroom. There are a ton of things that could be automated with touch enabled buttons and greatly increase productivity. People have tried to develop apps for the iPad to create programmable buttons and they haven't worked out well in practice; but if it were integrated into the keyboard it could be a big hit.