Not only that: if the machine doesn't run a vanilla Linux kernel, there's a terribly good chance that 3 years down the road, you'll still be stuck with the same outdated kernel.
Aye, that's my biggest issue with most of these little ARM devices. They don't have mainline support, so try running a device from 3 years ago and you'll find that it's already outdated. Why is that a problem? Well just take a look at the CVE list...
The A20 card should hopefully be a welcome relief from this insanity: https://wiki.debian.org/DebianKernel/ARMMP