And how many ssh users actually check the key fingerprints and verify they match those stored on the remote host? Is that even possible in most circumstances?

Hello, have you ever used ssh? As in, at all? It raises a holy hell if the keys have been tampered with.

$ ssh hostname.tld
@ WARNING: POSSIBLE DNS SPOOFING DETECTED! @
The RSA host key for hostname.tld has changed,
and the key for the corresponding IP address xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
is unknown. This could either mean that
DNS SPOOFING is happening or the IP address for the host
and its host key have changed at the same time.
@ WARNING: REMOTE HOST IDENTIFICATION HAS CHANGED! @
IT IS POSSIBLE THAT SOMEONE IS DOING SOMETHING NASTY!
Someone could be eavesdropping on you right now (man-in-the-middle attack)!
It is also possible that a host key has just been changed.
The fingerprint for the RSA key sent by the remote host is
zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.
Please contact your system administrator.
Add correct host key in /home/username/.ssh/known_hosts to get rid of this message.
Offending RSA key in /home/username/.ssh/known_hosts:76
RSA host key for hostname.tld has changed and you have requested strict checking.
Host key verification failed.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loongson
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ingenic

The linked tablets have the exact same specs as the indian one mentioned in this story. So if you're going to diss the specs, you can start right with that one. And no, you don't run an old GNU/Linux distribution on these tablets, you run a tailored version of Android. Which runs pretty well with 256 MB of RAM.

Actually here's a better model and $2 cheaper http://www.aliexpress.com/product-gs/439643437-Free-shipping-NEW-7-Inch-Android-2-3-256M-4GB-WiFi-Tablet-Pc-wholesalers.html

Everyone touts it as the second coming, some great breakthrough etc. Well here's one for $55. $10 more? Yes. But with free worldwide shipping included.
http://www.aliexpress.com/product-gs/454240700-7-Inch-Android-2-2-Tablet-PC-support-WIFI-3G-Android-MID-with-retail-package-8121-wholesalers.html
+ thousands of other models.
People thinking a tablet is called an iPad and costs $500 or whatever and you can get nothing cheaper, should get a reality (or an Aliexpress) check.

> and doesn't crap out in the VNC "box" like KDE or Gnome.

Xfce4 works quite well inside VNC too.

Economies of scale. The price is relatively high due to the low volume of production. These are hobby boards. The only reason you can build a $200 PC right now is because the hardware gets production runs in the millions or more.

Sure, and also maybe the chicken-and-egg problem?
There won't be any scale until there's significant demand, and there won't be any demand while those boards cost so much, that even most ARM enthusiasts would find it difficult to justify the purchase.
It's okay that the performance of those boards would not be stellar, but with them being so overpriced, the result is that the price/performance absolutely BLOWS -- and that's a big problem.

This has 4 times the memory, twice the clock speed and twice the cores of the Pi, of course it isn't going to be less then twice the price. Everything else being equal you might expect nearly 4 times the price (i.e. ~$130)

So, $130 for a bare board with CPU and RAM?
Yeah that would sound great, except when anyone can build a whole PC for $191, http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2392163,00.asp
With 2x the RAM and a CPU that rips the ARM on PandaBoard into a thousand of tiny teddy bears in terms of performance.
And a frigging 500 GB HDD (ok, pre-HDD-crisis).

You could say, "yeah but it's not ARM and low-power etc". Okay. There are now Chinese tablets with comparable specs, http://www.aliexpress.com/product-gs/509457480-CPAM-Free-shipping-10-1-superpad-3-android-2-3-tablet-pc-flytouch-3-GPS-512MB-wholesalers.html
that cost $125 shipped. Including stuff like 10" touch screen, camera, internal flash, battery, casing, etc, etc. There's no way a bare board should cost $130. It's just vendors up until now felt just fine with hiking up the price as much as they desire, because those who need it (for development etc) would buy it anyway, or even buy on their company's funds. But hopefully the Raspberry Pi will beat some sense into competitors in this area, and this will move an ARM PC from the ranks of a too-expensive-to-be-practical dream, to reality.