[keenerd]

Probably a cost saving measure. The entire board feels like it was put together to tick off a bunch of features. 64 bit quad core with bluetooth and wifi? Check. Meanwhile the clock is still a measly 1.2GHz, the wifi is only 2.4GHz, the ethernet is still 100Mb and the chipset is still broadcom. They are struggling to stay relevant. (Remember, it was only 1.5 years ago that their official word was "No RPi2 until 2017".)

The Odroid C2 goes on sale in a few days for $40. It's got a 64 bit quad core CPU (just* like the Pine and RPi3) but clocked at 2GHz. And has real gigabit. And has twice as much ram. And can drive a 4k screen comfortably. (Video-out was the one place where the RPi has traditionally excelled.)

* Okay, not entirely just like. It's an Amlogic chip instead of Broadcom or Allwinner. Amlogic is one of the few without blatant GPL abuse.