It’s a shame that Ibanez don’t tweak a few things. They make descent playing acoustic guitars so they they are capable of doing what it takes. They make some pretty good electrics.
I like body shape. Sharp frets should never leave a factory especially if doing a big box channel. That could be handled on the line at very little cost, it’s just QC.
Tuners........, they should dump the cheap Metal and put Graphtech planetary tuners on . I read one post where for OEM, they can get the cost down to dollars for tuner.
I don’t like the fact that your sharp edge on body shows white. It does that because of the obvious laminate material. The laminate looks good with sapele stripe so why not use black ABS binding to hid this edge, and eliminate the sharpness. Simple to do on line with a router. How aninstrument feels in your hands is really important. They went to the trouble to bind the fretboard yet ship with sharp fret ends. That can all be handled but like you say, why should you when there are lots of good options out there.
A little care, few tweaks and perhaps even make a sound port standard, just to be different. All these tweaks and care would set them apart and sell ukuleles. Now, no one would be expect more than a laminate sound out of the Uke but lots of people want a beater, or inexpensive Uke to start on.
I’d only buy, if price was lower or found at garage sale..... do some tweak myself , play for awhile and move Uke on to a person who is starting out.
It’s a recognizable name.....IBANEZ. They should stop putting out junk. IMHO.....