As fans of the traditional M naming scheme learned with the M240, today's Leica management will name cameras whatever they like even it makes no sense.
Likewise the M240's successor is whatever management says it is, optical viewfinder or no.
While I hate hypotheticals as much as the next guy;
Should a Leica SL have been labeled as a Leica M, do you really think anyone would truly considered that to be part of the "M Family"?
As to the term successor, I think there's a bit of ambiguity in that itself.
On one hand it could mean the camera that will replace and make the M line of cameras discontinued or obsolete, which I think you might be leaning toward. On the other, it means what I think most people are interpreting, that it is the next line in the M family of cameras.
I.e The successor in the Tudor family after Henry VIII died was Edward VI (still a Tudor). However, the successor to the Tudor family after Elizabeth I was James I from the House of Stuart.
Perhaps this is the better question for this thread.
Is Leica done with what we all know as the M Family of cameras or do they have another family of camera in the works with which it shall replace?
And you are right, Leica can call it whatever they want, but that doesnt mean the rest of the people will actually consider it to be part of the same M camera family if it doesnt have some form of OVF.
As for the name of the most recent Leica M, I always thought it was simply "M" and that it was then further denoted as the "Type 240". Presumably "240" because it's 24 megapix and simply "M" because they didnt want to goto double digits with M10 and to streamline their camera lineup with simple Alpha designation (rather than Alpha - Numeric). M240 seems like the moniker it has taken on the interwebs. Just like the M9M or MM or whatever people refer to when discussing the 1st vs 2nd Monochrom.
