I think that’s more than a little harsh. First, a Raspberry Pi 400 is not cheaper, because if you want to match the capabilities of the DevTerm you’re going to need to also buy a battery pack, a trackball, a display, speakers, and a printer(!)
Second, upgrading the kernel won’t brick the device. Might hose the operating system, I dunno, but if it does just pop the microSD out and re-flash. Easy.
Third, mainline Ubuntu might not ever support the thing - but if you want to use something that isn’t Armbian (and I can’t blame you for that) there’s work-in-progress on Arch Linux and Manjaro.
Is the DevTerm perfect? By no means. I’m still disappointed to see no progress on getting the display to work properly at 1280x480, and the thermal management remains a point of annoyance.
And yes, it’d be nice to see more progress on the software side of things - but I’m a GameSHell owner, I knew what to expect when I placed my order. Software’s never been Clockwork Pi’s forte - and tends to lean a little too heavily on the community rather than in-house expertise.
But I’d still very much recommend the DevTerm to anyone interested in it - there’s nothing like it anywhere else.