Source: I bought it.
Minutes run $20 for 180 if you want to activate it, which is a fair price for a pay as you go emergency phone, especially one running Android that includes a data plan.
For a heavily used normal day to day phone sure, something else is better.
Not sure how it is in the US, but in Romania we've got pretty good and cheap 4G-only Internet pre-pay cards. You can't call or receive phone calls, you cannot send SMS, all you can do is to connect to the 3G/4G network. The price is €5 for 1 GB, €7 for 3 GB, €15 for 13 GB of bandwidth. And you recharge whenever you want, as this is not a monthly plan. And I have an Android that I use with such a pre-pay card. It's like my personal 4G modem that I can also use for Skype and stuff. And I was actually thinking of giving up my phone number. If it weren't for my parents which are old-fashioned, I would.
I like cheap Android devices for testing software (the cheaper and nastier the better, actually...)
Yanks look like idiots to me, because they generally don't seem to factor the lock-in to a specific carrier to the price. In my country you can't offer phones and plans as a bundle, and therefore the pricing of the phones is very different.
For example: Europe might have better access to internet, however I'm not a fan of their policies, so I can choose to pay a bit more for internet in Canada, and deal with the lock-in.
It's silly to consider someone an idiot based off a single trade-off that they make. (Considering them an idiot based on many trade-offs is a different story)
edit: clarifying the subject trade-off
Planning to use this as a smart remote controller for my media box, as a Bluetooth robot controller, and I might do Skype and what not. It's possible I'd eventually activate it though for emergencies and get rid of my land line which costs more given the little I use it.
The phone is locked to one provider for at least a year. The US has DMCA which means unlocking goes in and out of legality. I think it's currently not allowed.