Whilst I agree with you about the virtues of Xiaomi devices ( Redmi note 2 here ) I don’t think even Xiaomi provides anything with this price/specs/hardware combination ( Don’t know how much it was at time of op , but now it’s $150 ) And I suppose if someone likes miui , and knows there’s a rom for x720 , it’s not such a stretch that they might ask for it on this device .
Well, the Mi5 does, but with less RAM, unless you choose the "Pro" edition. It lacks support for North American bands, though (1700 AWS), unlike the Pro3 Elite. But it has a slightly better screen, Corning Gorilla Glass 4 and a headphone jack. Oh, and NFC and an IR port
and a barometer, of all things. But it's battery is smaller (3000mAh). It also gets updates, unlike the Pro3 Elite, but still costs more even though it's a year older. Otherwise specs wise they're both pretty much the same.
The best bargain out there would be the Pro3 standard variant with the Snapdragon 821 and NFC for $230 or even $300, but you'd never catch me paying $300 for an LeEco phone... too risky since hardware defects seem to be widespread. With Xiaomi phones, you pay a bit more and you get more support. Hardware tends to be decent, but not perfect. You'll still hear about screen issues, camera issues, and so on. Just look at the Mi A1 and its screen issues and headphone jack issues... QC is still lacking in China.
But then again, look at LG's horrible record. Three bootlooping phones in 1 year: LG V10, LG Nexus 5X, LG G4. Good luck getting those RMA'd, lol. And even the Nexus 6P has so many battery and bootloop issues. Even the Pixel 2 and Galaxy S8 Snapdragon variant have problems! The issue is with all Android OEMs. They pump too many phones out without quality checking them. It's something that will only be fixed as smartphones mature.