My biggest problem with these Chromebooks is actually the limited local storage - this hardware with more local storage would be a killer linux machine.
In a lot of chromebooks, the storage is replaceable. It's just a normal-sized SSD that happens to have a very low capacity.
Sure, but the Pixel last year did not have a replaceable SSD, only some of the cheaper/slower models did. I don't know if this one does.
Most chromebooks don't have replaceable storage. Acer seems to be the only one making new chromebooks with replaceable storage. Also, eMMC isn't an SSD
Not anymore, almost all of them today are based on Intel's SoC architecture that can use embedded eMMC memory (basically a SD card on a chip) instead of a SATA SSD that you can replace. It's a cost cutting thing.
Yes, they are just trying to squeeze as much money out of you as possible by forcing you to use the cloud... the storage specs on these chromebooks feel like the 90s to me.