This confounds me to no end. I wonder what the point of this is. Chromebooks I get, they're cheap, and they're for people who just need the basics, just a Laptop-Shaped Phone. This is just... that... but expensive, for no additional advantages -- you may have stuffed it with more powerful hardware but it still runs some skin on top of what is essentially Android, which neither needs that power nor benefits from it very much. What are you doing, Google? I get you're scared of the Neo but this ain't any sort of an answer.
I'm currently on the fence about Chromebooks. The killer feature that's missing is good development tools, but I can get a decent laptop or a good mini PC and a Chromebook for the same amount, but as far as I know there's not a good solution for local dev.
Although I would definitely prefer macOS or Windows + WSL (since I play a decent bit of games), ChromeOS is a lot more pleasant experience now than in the past.
I agree that at prices that are close to $1k, I'm not sure if Chromebooks make a lot of sense. I see the value of it for K-12 students when everything is done in Google Suites and the price is closer to the $500 range.