And the N150 had mainline linux support from day one, whereas I'm not sure if there's proper support for pi5-family devices in a released mainline kernel even now, two years after the launch.

They used to do an good-to-adequate job of linux support, but nowadays they seem rubbish at it. Nobody wants to be stuck on a downstream kernel full of cobbled-together device support that's too poorly-written to upstream.

This has been the primary hurdle for me. I like it when I can just install regular linux and be on my way. Having to do a bunch of kernel nonsense is just not fun. I don't even mind messing with the kernel, but I want to use the mainline kernel.