The 9 speed is same as Pilot, and is actually not made by Honda, but by ZF, and is also used in other brands, like the Pacifica for example. ZF is actually quite a big player in the transmission industry, and their 8 speed automatic is used widely and critically acclaimed. The 9 speed however has had issues with both Honda and Chrysler, so I don't know if it is some issue on ZF's end in term of the physical design/manufacturing of the unit, or it's Honda and Chrysler not being able to optimize the transmission for the vehicles.
Chrysler is often just outright incompetent, but Honda has a much better reputation obviously. OTOH, Honda is probably just using the ZF units as a stop gap until their own 10 speed transmissions mature, so perhaps Honda is not making too much of an effort to optimize the ZF transmissions, unlike say BMW, whose entire line uses ZF transmissions, so probably BMW works very hard with ZF to make sure they are working smoothly.
The 10 speed is Honda designed and built, and probably is the future transmission of choice for all Honda vehicles. It is brand new though, so reliability will be a question mark for a while. Given that the entire car is fully redesigned, I would seriously consider getting the HondaCare extended warranty, if only for the peace of mind, especially if you went all out and got the Elite, with all of its additional fancy features!
Speaking of Elite vs Touring, I suspect that once a lot of both trims start sitting in dealer lots, you can probably negotiate a Elite for not too much more than a Touring, since the higher the trim level, typically you can get a bigger discount. If you can wait a few months, maybe even in to the new year (maybe next President's day?), there might be much better deals especially on the higher trim models.
