My friend - a notorious luddite - bought a newer iMac recently. He was sold by the marketing and videos/reviews of it. I've yet to see him sit at his desk to use it once beyond the first time. It's a paperweight. Same goes for my parents; they went to Currys (UK electronics retailer) to get a cheap laptop to view photos on, and to my dismay walked out with an iMac for 3x the price of a similar spec device that they use once in a blue moon.

These SKUs are categorically not meant for the likes of you and me. They're meant to target technologically illiterate people who want a pretty looking PC that everyone raves about because Apple are expert marketeers. The fact it's got 8GB RAM and 256GB of memory means little to nothing for them. They want an Apple device, but want something cheap, so they buy the cheapest one. Any other consideration is irrelevant.