Compared to 1030? Of course! But not to 520/520 Plus - these guys are significantly less powerful slower devices which simply can't run full set of navigation features and related hardware (like higher resolution touch screen). But releasing a device that has similar hardware to 1030 and the same software features and costs half the price is effectively the same as killing sales of 1030, so, of course, Garmin couldn't have done this. So, we got 5XX devices - good for training but quite limited for navigation and Explore - good for navigation but quite limited for training. Choose one or another. You want both? Sure - Garmin has 10XX line for you, just prepare your wallet. ;-)

As long as you don't need any advanced training features.

The comparison chart you reference is not always correct, e.g. Explore definitely has a battery saving mode. Judging by the device performance it really looks like chopped down 1030 platform artificially limited by software to not compete with higher price Garmins. I'll not be surprised if some of the things that are supposedly missing, like barometric altimeter, are in fact present and just disabled in software. I know for a fact that temperature sensor is present and was working perfectly in the first few iterations of the firmware. And then it suddenly disappeared. Tons of users thought it was a bug and complained - and Garmin answered that "temperature sensor feature is not supposed to be present on this device according to its specifications".