Daveh, I think you're wrong. And I do have a Nexus 5X.
The Nexii, at any price, were always niche models - targeting those who wanted a pure Android experience at reasonable cost - and that's exactly what I got with the 5X.
Where I disagree with you is that I believe Google has alienated Nexus owners because of PRICE. I received Nougat on my device within 3 weeks - pretty good if you ask me. Nougat 7.1 isn't that of a big deal, and Google will provide it soon after for 5X/6P owners. I don't think owners are going to revolt by waiting just month. Apart from being installed on the Pixels it isn't even officially launched for general Android devices yet.
The Pixels are just too high priced for their target audience - I personally would get an iPhone 7 if I were in the market now.
Another scenario is that Google will re-launch new Nexus models at midrange prices, but are keeping it secret. In fact that would be entirely sensible. They can equip it with the newer mid-level Snapdragon processors, and 3gb of ram instead of 4.