Likewise I've wanted one for a long time but at this rate will probably never come to pass. One reason are the reportedly weird but very persistent bugs as OP mentioned.
Bigger reason is uncertainty about the Windows platform. ChromeOS and macOS both run mobile apps, which bring a vast library and a level of integration (especially macOS + iOS) that seems increasingly hard to overlook. Add to this Microsoft's goal of switching to ARM and fragmenting its ecosystem, it becomes an even harder buy.
In general, the Surface lineup seems to be ~1 year behind in hardware compared to the rest of the industry, e.g. only now switching to TigerLake and Ryzen 4000 series CPU. Hardware itself is well packaged but a hard sell for its premium price. Furthermore Microsoft is delusional to sell RAM and SSD upgrades from 8GB to 16GB and 256GB to 512GB respectively for +$200.
> Bigger reason is uncertainty about the Windows platform.
Of all platforms to be worried about, I feel like Windows is the last one here (Web aside perhaps). It wouldn't be unreasonable to try running a program from Windows XP era and have it run fine in Windows 10.
As for the ARM fragmentation, fair enough but doesn't macOS face the same challenge? Windows 10 on Arm also supports running x86 apps without recompiling too.
You're right in that Windows will still be a viable platform for the lifespan of this laptop. My point was simply there are legitimate competitors now, especially due to their leveraging of mobile app libraries.
Right now it seems Apple has a better track record when it comes to the risk of ARM fragmentation - bolstered by their Rosetta translator is pretty good and the M1 hardware. For comparison, the Surface Pro X just received x64 emulation but its performance remains generally poor (not helped by the Qualcomm SQ1 SOC).
Bigger reason is uncertainty about the Windows platform. ChromeOS and macOS both run mobile apps, which bring a vast library and a level of integration (especially macOS + iOS) that seems increasingly hard to overlook. Add to this Microsoft's goal of switching to ARM and fragmenting its ecosystem, it becomes an even harder buy.
In general, the Surface lineup seems to be ~1 year behind in hardware compared to the rest of the industry, e.g. only now switching to TigerLake and Ryzen 4000 series CPU. Hardware itself is well packaged but a hard sell for its premium price. Furthermore Microsoft is delusional to sell RAM and SSD upgrades from 8GB to 16GB and 256GB to 512GB respectively for +$200.