They could cut their costs substantially by going with sub-FF support
lenses, even ones designed for
digital, Olympus's overpriced pro lenses notwithstanding.
Looking that this, I'd say it's a fair bet Nikon is going FF at some
point, maybe soon.

Nikon still has a massive userbase of people using real cameras and buying
lenses for those.
Anyway, anything is full frame for a given definition of "frame".
DX is "full frame", so is 645, so is 35mm, and so is 6x6.
And I doubt Nikon will ever produce a 6x6 DSLR, which (being the largest of
those formats) is the only true "full" frame among them, everything else is
smaller and therefore a subset of 6x6.

Old news. Even Thom Hogan says the D3h will be released this year,
possibly
at PMA, summer at the latest. As he says, there are too many prototypes
floating around -- nearly everybody who is anybody has seen one.

Well, * I * haven't seen one, not even a (Photoshopped) image on a web
site.

But Thom is curiously very vague about the specifications, with his
"teaser" comment about a "surprise." What in heck does he mean with
that comment?

it means he doesn't know and is just speculating but wants to sound
important by making you think he's got one already but isn't allowed to talk
(if he really had one he'd not even be allowed to say that you're in for a
surprise).