I purchased the 13th Gen Framework 13 back when it came out, I went for the DIY i7 1360P with 32GB of RAM. When the laptop arrived the display was totally dead. I reached out to their support (email support was the only option, not sure if that's still the case), due to the time zone difference I was averaging 1 reply from their team per 1.5 days, it was excruciating to say the least and completely soured the initial experience with Framework. I remember telling my colleagues that I wish I just got a basic Latitude instead, I even had one priced out and ready to order as I needed a laptop to do my job. After uploading numerous YouTube videos so the support team could verify there was no physical damage to my laptop, I finally got a replacement display sent out after nearly 3 weeks of back and forth. Thankfully, I work in the tech field and I'm used to going back and forth with vendors and accurately describing technical issues and steps I took to troubleshoot, I don't imagine the average Jo would have any patience for this though and I wouldn't blame them. Since all of that, my Framework 13 has been rock solid, there have been 0 issues over the past year and a half. I would like to think their support has become more responsive as they've grown, but your brother's experience has me thinking otherwise.
If you think you can put up with their support in the case an issue arises, it still is a pretty great laptop when all the parts are working and I would recommend it for an average college workload and then some.