Not such a big deal because highdpi is finnicky in Linux in 2021 (as long as it is a high-quality panel). Lenovo has shipped some atrocious 1080 panels in the past.
Works great, if you happen to have resolution that is usable with integer scaling.
If you need fractional scaling, only native Wayland applications work well. X11 applications are going to be upscaled and look blurry. Today, Chrome, all Electron apps, Jetbrains tools still do not support Wayland, though at least for Chrome/Electron the support is on the way.
Sometimes I wish there was the possibility to see the exact number of upvotes or downvotes a response got here in HN in order to settle the numbers of such opinions (pro and contra).
My eyesight is not great. The higher resolution screen is wasted on me, and wastes computing / energy resources to drive it.
I enjoy gaming on my laptop, and prefer native resolution gaming.
I require a high refresh rate due to post-concussion syndrome. So sure, if that can be the case with a higher resolution that's fine, but that isn't the norm yet. (2021 seems to be the year for QHD 165Hz though!)
I'm in no way saying QHD or 4K isn't ideal for anyone. It's just silly to say that "this option I don't want is a non-starter" as if it applies to everyone.
I prefer it since 1080p takes less resources to drive, therefore gets better battery life. On a 14" display, I think 1080p looks more than fine. If I want a hidpi display, I'll just dock to an external display.
For me and my tired eyes, no laptop screen comes close to the real deal which is a large ultrawide monitor. So it might as well come with 1080p which has better battery life and no application scaling issues on Linux.