This was justifiable when there was no practical way to run 5K over standard connectors. But that time is over, and so is the age of the 27" iMac.
It seems to be even closer to the iMac in price, which I'm guessing it makes up for in build quality but that means separately buying the computer and monitor is still very expensive compared to what a hypothetical 27" iMac would cost, and the name "smart monitor" makes my skin crawl... but it seems like a decent somewhat cheaper alternative to the Studio Display.
Hopefully these 5K 27" monitors will get more widespread and cheaper over time.
Signal integrity and all that sure, but really it's just a freaking monitor.
Plugging a monitor nowadays will always work. Of course, buying a new monitor only to have it fall back to a lower-quality compatible mode is unacceptable, but that's what happens in today's world. Monitors are more varied than ever. A 1080p60 monitor will work everywhere, and all monitors will accept such a signal. But we all love fancy toys.
Next time it'll be a Mac Studio and a Studio Display, cost be damned.
My options were essentially to either trade it back to Apple for $300, try to sell it myself for maybe $400 and pay a ton to ship it, or try to take it apart myself to swap out the hard drive for an ssd and risk breaking part of it and it being worth $0. I caved and traded it in to Apple just so I could stop looking at the box.