Replying to myself:
Apparently I was mixing up the new Furilabs FLX1s and new Jolla phone. The FLX1s that's a major downgrade from the prior FLX1 and some people were reporting are based on a design that's really cheap on Aliexpress and using very old hardware but with a custom spin to add some physical switches to it.
The new Jolla actually does look really good compared to all the other avaiaobale Linix phone hardware options.
The new Jolla actually does look really good compared to all the other avaiaobale Linix phone hardware options.