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Same things you can do with an RPi and/or BeagleBone black -- though without HDMI it's focused on more embedded / headless / wireless things. Think IOT.

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pardon my ignorance, but despite their website, specs, and a list of their projects, I haven't been able to figure out whether this would easily connect to my laptop via USB, and I could deploy some code on it for starters. Do I need any additional pluggable hardware?

http://beagleboard.org/Support/BoneScript/updates/

It seems that the easiest way to get started is to use a microSD card.

Etcher is a bit easier than the old 7-zip + win32diskimager solution: https://beagleboard.org/getting-started#update

If it's anything like the BeagleBone Black Debian-based image, you can connect with USB to get access to a shell, or access the Cloud9 IDE through your browser. It's very plug-and-play friendly. (The BeagleBone variants also have ethernet/WiFi, which can be used for the same, but I can't tell if the PocketBeagle does wireless or not.)

EDIT: Here's a video for the Blue:

https://youtu.be/pTpUMajQS_U?t=170

Starting around 2:50, she shows opening up the onboard Cloud9 instance after plugging in the MicroUSB cable.

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