Short answer: no, most of the public doesn't care.
Long answer: most of the public are dumb sheep and can barely turn on their computers without an exhaustive step-by-step guide, let alone tell your average touch-screen device from an iPhone. I'm impressed when their ilk load up the browser without infecting their PC with about fifty different forms of malware within five minutes. These aren't people who will be aware of anything but the iPhone, the BB, whatever. They want flashing billboards, TV ads, glossy magazine splashes.
Without a loud, garish advertising campaign putting the N1 into the hand of some celebrity or similar, they won't really know the phone exists. But on the other hand, as has been pointed out in another thread, Google's taking it slow--hence nothing about the N1 during their Stupidbowl ad. It's not like Google can't afford an all-out marketing campaign shoving a cardboard model of the N1 ten times the size of the real thing down everyone's throat, but it appears they're choosing not to do that. Why the hell not? Maybe they feel they're not ready to deal with customer support yet (and they aren't, hence the recent announcement that they're recruiting staff for a department dedicated to Android/phone support).