[cdt5050]

The Pi 500 does definitely swing in the direction of the computer.

IMO the target demographic of the Pi 500 are people who want, first and foremost, a desktop PC, but one that is well suited to hobbyist computing and/or computing education.

Yeah, if you JUST want to run a word processor, browser, etc. one of those N100 PC's might make more sense. If you open up an issue of MagPi magazine and feel inspired, then the Pi 500 might make more sense. And that's what it really comes down to. Is computing, itself, a hobby or interest to you, or not?