I decided to get a beefy lock and insurance. I figured otherwise I would worry too much about theft. And I still park it inside at home, which I'm lucky to be able to do.

I don't necessarily recommend the brand, especially if you don't know how to do your own maintenance a bit, but I know someone with a velotric discover 1 which was about that same price point like a year ago and it has a 500W/900 peak motor and like 670Wh battery (and UL listed so less likely to burn your house down, but tbh that isn't particularly likely regardless, unless you go with the absolute cheapest crap batteries/chargers). Though that one is getting kinda old and heavy at this point (but it's got one of the highest weight ratings I've seen on a non-cargo bike which is neat), and his needed some maintenance because it came in the with wholly insufficient spoke tension, causing some issues down the line with the rear wheel.

So point is you can definitely get better specs for the price than that REI link. But it does look like it uses pretty standard, if maybe a bit older parts. Bafang hub motor kits have been the standard for DIY and smaller/cheaper brands alike for a while, but a lot of higher end stuff has switched to mid-drive, where the motor is at the pedals not in the wheels (and the european stuff is more likely to be using Bosch not bafang, its a lot more expensive tho.) It looks like REI does include assembly and regular maintenance in that cost though so that is nice if you have a local REI nearby. 250W is not a ton of power but it does depend on your weight, fitness, and what you're carrying. 250w isn't gonna be like a motorcycle at all but its a lot easier than pedaling alone.

Things I'm noticing about the REI one: it doesn't have fenders, or any kind of cargo rack, so you'll be spending more time and money for those unless you want to forgo them (fenders I think are important for bikes that are for transportation not just for sport, but maybe you live in an area that doesn't get much rain, idk, and rack seems pretty important for groceries, I've done the groceries in a backpack thing, its not great)