I checked out the phone yesterday at Verizon. The phone was chunky, dated, and the screen felt cheap. I'm really not sure who this phone is for, especially with that price tag. Nostalgic 40-somethings with money to burn?
Yep. For those desperate enough for nostalgia to pay. They take advantage of that. Many companies who don't rely on one specialized product will cater to nostalgia and whatever little demand still exists by simply ramping the price up to an unrealistic level--that way anyone who is desperate enough will pay if they're the only one catering to them.
A good example: Once, my main daily driver was a 1984 Chrysler Fifth Avenue. In the 1982 model year they switched from the wood grain style dash bezel (that I preferred) to the marble styled one (which I hated) and I was on a forum dedicated to those old cars and someone was selling one of the wood styled versions, and when I inquired about it, he set an outrageous $500 price on it. He claimed that I was the only one who liked it (he was tossing it and had gotten the marble one from a junkyard) and if I wanted it bad enough I'd pay. That's what Lenovo seems to be doing.
Kinda sucks. Many would rather buy an old RAZR to get that fix if AT&T hadn't killed their 2G network. I myself revisit 2010 devices by either repurposing them or keeping them active just in case. I got a phone running Android 2.3 that I use for email and a Roku remote. I am just not really that interested in most modern stuff outside the few Apple devices I own.
I would still prefer if they had released basically the original, style and all, with KaiOS and upgraded VoLTE capability. Keep the nostalgia going properly--they did exactly that with a GSM-StarTAC released in the 2000s (the original StarTAC is considered the first popular flip phone, in the mid-90s and operated on AMPS and later CDMA) but the only noticeable change was the ugly colors offered. Some sort of rainbow color scheme.
Palm Phone made the same mistake, by releasing something intended to cater to those who missed the Palm Pre but ditched wireless charging, didn't use WebOS (Open WebOS is still developed), made it dependent on another phone, and ramped up the price. People who miss WebOS and the Pre don't want another generic Android phone pretending to be something it's clearly not.