I agree that it is harder on those that spent more money. But, as is the case with most things and as everyone pretty much knows: You buy now to have it now, you wait for later to save some money. Both options were available and should be well known to OP (especially for a self-proclaimed IT Manager for a FINANCIAL organization, one would think they are near expert level on both Tech and Money Management!).
Personally, I recently took both paths with different devices: Bought now and also waited for a sale. I bought the Surface Book with Performance Base as soon as I could, trading a few hundred dollars for 3-6 weeks of usage (and I needed it ASAP as a replacement). I did NOT complain when there was a sale over black Friday / into the holidays for the Surface Book. That was almost a foregone conclusion. On the other hand, I bought the HP during a sale to replace a perfectly good L950, and I am very happy with both decisions.
As for the Elite x3, I would say that for the right person I have no problem recommending the phone and would even explain a realistic set of use cases for continuum and/or other hardware to augment the phone. But then speed and performance, memory, and current Win10 Mobile features were what I was looking for in my phone. I can't imagine having bought the SB and saying "well hey, this should TOTALLY have a glance screen soon!" *roll eyes*
So far the discussion about x86 running on ARM (but just not my existing ARM-based chip in my phone), misses a fundamental point: The thought of x86 running on a phone is WAAAAAAAY over romanticized by OP. The phone purchased was for a dream, and based on his description, the dream of running x86 apps on his PHONE to close the app gap will likely never even come close to being realized. In fact, you would have a use case very close to that of continuum (IMHO) which trades extreme portability for performance and/or features. You will likely need to be hooked up to a screen to get any benefit from running x86 apps, and that is just un-phone-like. Best case is a wireless DP/HDMI accessory that can broadcast to a monitor, but you still lack a keyboard and mouse. The hardware needed in addition to a phone grows rapidly as you use more and more of the x86 apps. In short: If continuum isn't for you, x86 on a phone is likely not for you as well.
I would be interested to hear back in 18 to 24 months if OP is able to buy a phone running x86 apps and they are not extremely disappointed and still blame the hardware / software for what amounts to poor foresight and imagination.