In this case, part of the criticism is that the phone doesn't function well. Even when it was new, it was slow and clunky, and the issue seemed to be the CPU wasn't up to the task. They may have optimized it a bit since, but fundamentally they chose an under-powered CPU to hit certain open source requirements.
I agree though that for many things (such as their laptop), specs often don't matter. Either I need a high-end, GPU accelerated computer, or I need a terminal. Having the newest CPU doesn't matter if it achieves other desired goals.
> and the issue seemed to be the CPU wasn't up to the task.
This is definitely not true, the issue is in the non-optimized software. I tried SXMo [0] on a Pinephone (which is much slower than the Librem), and it was unbelievably fast, including watching videos and looking a maps in a split-screen mode, simultaneously and smoothly. Android had 10 years and a huge team of developers to optimize the UI.
Sxmo is based on a keyboard-driven tiling window manager. Yes, it is as bad as it sounds. Touch gestures suck so much[1] that the most comfortable way to navigate it is with the volume buttons and power button. Each of these buttons has like 3 different functions with double, tripple click etc. Changing the volume is not one of the functions[2].
Auto screen orientation only works 50% of the time, because the whole thing is based on a pile of shell scripts.
I agree though that for many things (such as their laptop), specs often don't matter. Either I need a high-end, GPU accelerated computer, or I need a terminal. Having the newest CPU doesn't matter if it achieves other desired goals.