I would happily buy a laptop with medium specs but apple build quality. I don't know if the Neo's build quality is on par with their other laptops but if it is it's probably my next laptop.
From the reviews, my impression is that the Neo has Apple's build quality, but they cut some costs to save on machining the chassis, and the trackpad doesn't have the haptic motor.
I bought one for my partner after my favorite tech podcast reported positively on the build quality. It's excellent and also her first Mac. Feels just as good as my MacBook Pro and the MacBook Air. They preserved the Apple experience.
When I finally convinced my father to get a Mac ~2005/2006, he left me a voicemail saying that all he'd done was take it out of the box and he could already tell that it was a good purchase.
There were, if I recall correctly, one or two generations of Dell XPS that came close but they started cheaping out on materials almost immediately after it.
The old-ish ThinkPads were great if you want a rugged laptop, but that's not really because of better build quality, there were just more material.