Thank heavens the sale configuration comes with 16 GB of RAM instead of just 8 GB of RAM. The new price is a bit lower than a Dell Latitude 14 or HP EliteBook when both are configured with similar specifications.
https://www.notebookcheck.net/New-Lenovo-ThinkPad-X1-Carbon-Gen-9-already-discounted-to-1409-USD-with-11th-gen-Core-i5-16-GB-RAM-and-16-10-IPS-display.531810.0.html