Well the bad news I expected came. My previous thoughts that "a Shimano Alfine 11 for $252, yeah right" were confirmed with the following email:

"Hello,

Unfortunately our warehouse is unable to fulfill this order. We apologize for any inconvenience. You will receive a refund from Amazon once we cancel the order.

Thank You."

Moving along, I couldn't find a Sturmey Archer XRK5 anywhere, so I contacted them. They told me the new 244% c50 version is coming right after the first of the year, and sent me a nice sales brochure. For those who haven't followed, there were some announcements elsewhere here on the forum regarding this unit, apparently as a replacement to the current 5 speed. But until I received this correspondence, I thought it was primarily vaporware.

Total range is 244% (down from 256%), gear steps are equal at 25% each, every version (save one) has a 135mm OLD dimension, and the gear selector is now an inboard rotary style, similar to Shimano 7/8/11 units. And most importantly (to me!), judging by the photos of the shifters, the direction of shift is consistent with normal derailleur shifters. I think I'm going to have to wait for this one.