The pixelbook is rather expensive for what it is.

I have a secondhand hp z620 (32 cores, 64 gigs of ram) and a 4k screen. Total cost < £700

Whilst being about 4 years old, its still much much faster than a top end macbook. Yes its not portable. However I don't move around that much at work (If I do, everything is in git, or one can ssh in from another machine.)

if I need to work from home, I have any old laptop to ssh in and work.

being able to make -j 30 on a large project, is worth every penny, or not being able to move it about.