I've been thinking about the 90D and a few things perplex me.
The marketing and announcement seem a bit underwhelming if this truly represents the merging of the XXD and 7D lines. I'm comparing it to other Canon announcements, like the 7DII, and it just seems like they are almost trying to fly under the radar.
While the specs are great for an upgrade to the 80D, it seems as though Canon deliberately left some room there for another model -- autofocus being the most obvious example. I get the feeling they are hedging their bet a bit here, leaving enough off so that if they see a market for a truly top of the line APS-C camera, they have room to offer that and still have sufficient product differentiation.
Pricing: Not that I'm complaining, but if they can offer these upgrades at the same price as the 80D at introduction, why not fill in the gaps a bit more fully and price it somewhere between the 7D and 80D? At this level, I'm not sure the buyers are so price sensitive that an extra say $200 would deter anyone if the specs matched the price.
No definitive statement from Canon. I get that a company is unlikely to announce they are killing a product, but if they truly wanted to migrate 7D users to the 90D, it would have been more effective to announce that the 90D is now the flagship APS-C body.
Now, if an APS-C R is coming sometime in the next year or so, this all might make sense. Or, if Canon simply decided to defer a final decision on the 7DIII for a year or so, this would also make sense.
Edit: I forgot to mention that I was also struck by Rudy Winston's 90D video which opens by framing the camera as a DSLR "for the photo enthusiast looking to step up to the next level." I may be parsing the words too much, but that doesn't sound to me like the language Canon would ordinarily use for their flagship APS-C body.