For a long time I was ambivalent on Chromebooks. I mean a low power PC clone, which relied on being online most of the time, whats teh point of that.
Then my daughter wanted a laptop she could take to school. It was either a laptop of a chromebook, so I thought what the hell, go for a chromebook.
I'm glad I did. The form factor is perfect for travelling to school, and having no spinning rust means they are robust. The OS starts instantly, and I don't have to worry about AV protection and constant updates. As laptops are generally used by the majority of people to browse the web and write a few documents,run zoom etc ,there is little loss of functionality
My daughters normal laptop has virtually never been turned on once she got the chromebook. Personally I cannot see the point in spending 100's more on a fully featured laptop unless you have a niche requirement so rather than the world moving back when the crisis are over, I think a lot of people have found they do not need to spend the extra money for power and functionality they never use