I am an engineering manager at Google. I carry around an Asus C302CA for meetings, and I'll occasionally use it to SSH into a corp machine. I do have a Linux workstation at work for coding.
I also use the nearest Chromebook to SSH into a personal VPS where I keep stuff I want online other than the usual cloud content. And I have a couple Raspberry Pis at home for misc hacking.
The main value of ChromeOS to me is that the machines never break, and other than making sure my family enables U2F on all their accounts, there aren't any best practices, fine-tuning, or maintenance for the fleet of machines that I maintain as a dad.
Favorite models including years past: Acer C720 (fast and cheap but screen wasn't great); Toshiba Chromebook 2 (IPS, full HD, love the keyboard); Google Pixel 2 (remains the perfect laptop of any kind, but it was hard to find in quantity); Asus C302CA (currently the best; great screen + touch, OK battery, hinged design is very nice for impromptu shared viewing sessions and presentations).
Well then, not biased at all.
ChromeOS wasn't a problem. I was able to get a development workflow going just fine, I planned on using Mosh to shell into a development machine and I was on my way to figuring out a fluid way to edit files through perhaps SSHFS.
The problem was the hardware itself, which, after years of getting spoiled by MacBooks, left a lot to be desired. The keyboard sucked, the screen sucked, but the real deal breaker was that the battery life was utter crap, and it drained while it was sitting in my car. This made it unusable and I eventually gave it away.
I could spend the money and get better hardware, but at that point it's competing with my MacBook.
I spent the money, bought a high-end C302CA, and found it does indeed compete with my Macbook... resulting in rarely using the Macbook. Figures, really, but I have no objections to this outcome.
I wondered if I'd switch over to it. I haven't. I like larger laptops, I prefer the MBP keyboard, and I generally need to be able to run more stuff locally. But I'm glad I have it, I use it around the house when my mac is plugged into a monitor in my office, and I'll definitely use it for all future international travel.
(Asus Chromebook Flip, FWIW.)
My main development system is a very beefy virtual image on a vmware cluster, more capable than any laptop I could buy. I VNC into it over a vpn, doesn't matter much if my VNC host is mac/android/chromeos...
Asking what I'd do if the network is down is kinda like asking what I'd do without electricity or water. Locally the odds of failure are about the same, and I'd simply fix it or move where it works.
I use it as a large format document reader, and as an easy-to-secure, easy-to-wipe, easy-to-restore travel machine. It's also great for sketching out design diagrams on a table in a meeting. The fact that the Chromebook Plus also runs Android apps is a huge plus.
I've never unlocked it to install Linux, because that reduces the security guarantees, which were a major selling point for me when travelling.