I'm no 277 enthusiast. But honestly, there's no magic caliber. Even the bore sizes I'm partial to, there's nothing special about those bore sizes. What's special is the availability of wind resisting high b c. bullets that's consistent in weight & form and that's not finicky about seating depth. The 170 eol is a good example. Some case designs seem to be less finicky & sometimes yield wider nodes with popular powders matched up with these heavy for caliber bullets. Will the 6.8 Western be a non finicky round yielding wide nodes? It's likely that it will, but only time will tell. It seems that Browning & Winchester wanted to get their names put in the game, so they done it with the 6.8 Western. They're in buisness to make money and this is their attempt to sell more rifles and ammunition. That's fairly self explanatory. So for the folks that are .277 enthusiasts, here's another offering. If a fellow is hand loading long, heavy, high b.c. bullets in a saami or long throated, fast twist 270 win with a slow burning high bulk density powder: then he's probably already fairly close to factory velocities of the 6.8 Western. For some one who's going to handload the 6.8 Western, he can possibly get another 150fps with the right slow burning powder. And if that's not fast enough, there's the 27 Nosler. So there's really no room for .277 enthusiasts to complain. Plenty of options on the table. For those who want a fast twist 270 Winchester or 270wsm, there's a pile of gunsmiths who will chamber up a fast twist 270 win barrel and put it on. For those who are happy with what they already have, that's an even better scenario because they won't be spending any money for another rifle. Will I be buying a 6.8 Western? I'm not really compelled to or not to buy a 6.8 Western either way.
On a side note: Ron Spomer writes articles for a living. He doesn't know anymore than anyone else who can go to an online ballistic calculator and figure out. A little more case capacity equals a little more velocity and longer freebore keeps long heavy bullets from being seated way deep in the case, this is also self explanatory.