commenter was suggesting that framework allows you to “grow with your budget”

i don’t think this is exactly true in most situations

not to be a downer but you could very likely buy a higher performing laptop than even the top framework laptop for less money than even a minimal build

considering that the intended use case is for research, the web is going to be used either way, so it’s better to not have the distraction of a full web browser, which is exactly what “distraction free” is all about