It's an esoteric device for sure. I've really enjoyed the titles that the console ships with, and it actually has some relatively big names who have developed games for it. Crankin's Time Adventure was developed by the makers of Katamari Damacy. The upcoming Playdate game "Mars After Midnight" is being developed by Lucas Pope, of "Papers, Please" and "Return of the Obra Dinn".

The lo-fi aspect is part of the appeal, but obviously not for everyone. That being said, Panic has struggled to keep up with the overwhelming demand, and itch.io is filled with thousands of titles developed for the Playdate, and it has a very active online community surrounding the device (outside of Lemmy).

Don't forget server lock-in!

It's certainly an esoteric product. I bought mine before the price increase (when they were I believe $170), and I've been quite pleased with it. It's fun, has creatively made games on it, and makes for a perfect waiting room time-killing device. But it certainly isn't for everyone at its price point. The build quality is very nice though, as you'd expect from something designed by Teenage Engineering.

Yeah $200 seems quite steep even though it does look cool!