16 year old me, back when I was 16, would also have found this amazing. The thing is that today, lots of things cost less than $100 and runs linux. Go on Ebay or Facebook marketplace, and you'll find a near unlimited supply of $100 laptops that will run Linux at least as well as this will, and there you even get a screen. Go to AliExpress and you'll find mini PCs with similar specs to this for around $100, and you'll get an x86 CPU and the option of also running Windows. There is lots of competition in the "costs less than $100 and runs Linux" market, and it is not clear why this is necessarily better.
who cares if it just has micro hdmi ports, no nvme
Clearly lots of people. Choosing to need a special 'weird' cable, that very few people have lying around, to plug it into a monitor or choosing the storage option with the much worse IO performance and reliability just seem like strange choices, given that making the 'right' choice probably wouldn't increase the cost by all that much.
who cares if it just has micro hdmi ports, no nvme
Clearly lots of people. Choosing to need a special 'weird' cable, that very few people have lying around, to plug it into a monitor or choosing the storage option with the much worse IO performance and reliability just seem like strange choices, given that making the 'right' choice probably wouldn't increase the cost by all that much.