“Barebones” usually just refers to a machine that is not complete, missing CPU, memory, storage, for customization. I assume you mean it’s a basic/low-end configuration. Still, it seems to be a fairly recent generation of hardware. If you have a spinning disk, you’ll see a huge performance increase by upgrading to an SSD. You can get a 512GB SSD for $25-35.
If you look at minimum/suggested requirements for almost any distro, I think you’ll be comfortably above that. I looked up the laptop and it seems to have an AMD APU (similar to what’s in a Steam Deck), optional NVMe drive, 8-16GB DDR4, WiFi 5… I’m running Ubuntu 23.04 on a 2015 laptop and it’s fine, no difference at all from a current gen in Google Workspace.
I’m really tempted to order a StarLite, and I feel like that would be the best fit for you, but understand the hesitance to be an early adopter. Maybe you can pick up a used device to tick the boxes and order one later.