This has no ethernet connection so that makes it a no go for me. Also, it has no optical drive which my i5 has which is very convenient to have.
As a mobile device, not having an ethernet port or optical media drive are no big deal. As a desktop replacement, both of those may be added via USB-C.
Yep - docking station. You could probably get that done for as little as $50.
Looks like a decent laptop for those in the market. The price is pretty good for what you get, the processor is new enough that it’ll get Windows updates for a good while yet.
I’d add additional memory, 12GB RAM is acceptable but if you can spend an extra $100 you can bump it up to 32GB. That’s a pretty straightforward upgrade and should be doable by most people (service manual with the steps is at http://h10032.www1.hp.com/ctg/Manual/c07790305.pdf)
As habeebtc said, a docking station would also be a good upgrade and would allow you to easily connect it to multiple monitors, wired network connections, and additional USB devices. A basic one of those is about $50, and you can get models that support dual 4k monitors in the $150 range usually.