So for those looking for other SBC options, think one looks tempting:
https://www.hardkernel.com/shop/odroid-m1s-with-8gbyte-ram/assuming it's actually reliable and tolerant of crap. I might try
getting one of these and putting Ubuntu 22.x LTS on there. That at
least implies it will be better supported than my OrangePi3 LTS boards
(bringing one tonight!) which has been running Armbian, but which are
frankly a crappy choice since I find that Armbian isn't such a great
distro.
Or more likely the vendor is just shipping meh parts. I've got one
board working, and one dead one that won't even power up.
Sigh... time to take a look at the board more closely and see if
there's anything I can do. but mostly I hate throwing good money
after bad.
https://wlug.mailman3.com/hyperkitty/list/wlug@lists.wlug.org/message/HPHI3SQTKAD4LBFB6A4N3KIUFWQBW4UN/