I doubt anyone learning to program would need to subscribe to a remote dev machine just to run hello world type programs. From 2020-2023 I used an 8GB Macbook Air M1 to develop a lot of relatively heavy software, containers in the background too, and it wasn't a bad experience.

I agree. My point though is that this extends the market of this device beyond the educational sector.

I have friends that have gone on extended vacation work trips and have lugged along a laptop purely to connect to a beefy workhorse PC at home.

Maybe this is a tweener category though in that that sort of person would simply bring along a Macbook Air they already own? I dunno.