I looked pretty hard at a Z7 not too long after getting my D850 at the invitation of my local camera store. This was when the Z7 was just out. I think they had a customer with a reservation back out and were needing someone to buy it. So I did, even though the "new" wasn't worn off the D850 yet. I thought it was a very nice camera...about 80% of my D850. I also felt like my D850 would still be plugging and chugging for quite a while after the Z7 was worn out or broken. It just didn't convey the same sense of ruggedness and durability. To me, right now, any benefit from the fractional reduction in weight did not pay for what I would be giving up. The Z7 presented as more a 'consumer' camera than the D850. It also appeared that the lenses were something like 40% more expensive than premium Nikkor lenses of equal focal length and speed. That is quite a penalty.

Making this even more interesting is that at the time, I was still working through some of the changes from the D810 to the D850 that I initially did not care for, including the relocated ISO button and the elimination of the onboard flash. (I have come to believe now that both of these changes are significant improvements.)

I cannot tell you for certain that my response would the same or different if I looked at the Z7 again. I do know that there is way too much hysteria around every new camera introduction. It seems that every new model that comes out is "the ultimate camera," only to be replaced by something else in a year or two. Since I've been active here, there has been <residual> hysteria around the D500 (which I finally got one of), the D850 (which I bought in late 2018) the Z7, the Z6, and several other models. I would be willing to bet that there was hysteria around the D810, the camera that almost everyone here has now dumped. The one thing I know for sure is that none of them is "the ultimate camera."

I believe that there are paths to a Z7 that make sense. I just don't see that any of them pass through the D850.