Quote"We should stress that the F2 Pro remains good value for money even at €699."
No, it really isn't. At that price point, it gets outclassed by a considerable number of phones, even some by Xiaomi themselves.
One good example is the Xiaomi Mi 10, (680 USD on AliExpress), which has dual speakers, better cameras, a better screen (90 Hz), and comes with 8gb ram and 128gb storage.
There's also the OnePlus 8, which is just overall a better phone and costs 699 USD on their site.
A third example would be the Realme X50 Pro, which also has a 90Hz screen, 8gb ram, and 128gb storage and costs something like 530 USD (not entirely sure about this one, but it's less than 550 USD on AliExpress). Also Realme UI is leagues better than MIUI. I really don't understand how people are fine with MIUI's horrendous performance sometimes, especially on their "Redmi Note" series.
I really can't see your point that €699 is a "good value" for a Poco F2 pro. Not saying it's a bad phone, but at the price point Xiaomi "promised" they'd sell it, a phone with top tier specs and mediocre software would actually be a pretty decent value and is the reason these phones sell so much.