I just bought one used (Gen1) for 450 EUR, I’d consider that cheap for this kind of hardware.

Alternatively look for Thinkpad X13 (Ryzen), slightly bigger, great hardware and value.

Thinkpad X1 Nano. Great specs, approx. 920 grams, super lightweight. Decent CPU and RAM (I did some light video editing on mine and it’s great), and a 2k screen (13 inch).

I’m using Debian on mine, works out of the box (like all Thinkpads, in my experience).