Is it really so buggy that this is needed? Hugs has worked fine every time I've used it

Definitely. Ripple was originally envisioned as person-to-person. The financial institutions also being allowed in came later to "grease the wheels"

Curious why you discount the odroid system? It's the same price with better specs.

Why the downvote? It's a straight free-as-in-freedom Gmail competitor, which is what was asked for