The Hub is an actual complete Surface PC. $9k is ridiculous, but it is more than just a whiteboard.

But in that case you don't want more than a white board. There are many cases, especially in the corporate world, where you want a single-purpose device that isn't going to need maintenance, group policies, etc etc.

Buying a device without "group policies, etc etc" doesn't mean you don't still need to implement them.

Damn I wish our company would stop buying Alexa/Home/Chromecast/Sonos/IoT-box-from-down-the-street.

One of the best ideas I ever had was getting a completely separate network connection for our guest WiFi. It was trivial to implement, keeps our diagrams and GRC needs simple, and we no longer have to worry when a PHB wants an IOT lightbulb that'll no doubt get hacked in 24 months.

The next generation (that they recently demoed in videos) is expected to be much, much cheaper.

Can you provide a link or two?

Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7DbslbKsQSk

Price info: https://wccftech.com/microsoft-surface-hub-2-22000/

There is a better article I read about the pricing when it was first announced, but that's the few top results that goes over it.

Look at the comparison they made and you'll understand why...