It's about reducing variable costs.
You build phones, watches, tvs, washers, dryers, fridges? Why use separate hardware and software? That's just expensive. Just build a common platform that can be easily modified for everything and take advantage of production scale to reduce costs everywhere.
Slap in all those smart phone features too because why the fuck not. It's cheap, someone might be convinced to buy it because of it, and few people will avoid it because you can use your phone. Bonus points! We can collect use information.
Everyone wins! Except the customer. Because fuck them.
Are you just using this laptop to dip your toes into Linux and see if you like it? I would recommend Debian + XFCE. It's lightweight, it prioritizes stability over new features, and it's a fairly easy UI for a newbie to understand. Alternatively Linux Mint MATE Edition might be worth a try. It's also lightweight but is a bit more "up to date" than Debian feature wise.