I was going to report back that I ordered the Probook 445 G7 from HP website on Sept 27th. It said delivery in 30 business days so hopefully I get it this month.
I think only the Freedos version with 4500U was available to order back when I did, which was fine for me. It looks like it is still available for order with the 30 day shipping delay. There is a drop down on the HP 445 G7 page to choose the Freedos vs Win vs 4700U option. HP site btw is down like 70% of the time, I don't know what is up with that!! I hope they are a legitimate site!
Win 10 cost did not seem worth it. It might even be marginally cheaper to buy Win 10 directly! The Win 10 edition was ~75k vs freedos for 60k and if I buy Win 10 Pro directly it is 14k. I could also get Win 10 home for cheaper.
Strangely the RAM specs for 4500U version say 3200Mhz, while for the 4700U says 2400Mhz. The manual says 3200Mhz for all variants. It might be worth checking with sales support as it might be 3200Mhz for the 4700U variant also.
Regarding customization, they said they only do it for bulk orders, but it looked like they might do it if you press them. I didn't try too hard - I mainly wanted a better screen than the default.
The default HP screen is really poor (1366x768 TN with possibly PWM issues as pointed out in notebookcheck review although that was with the hd screen option). I use my current laptop mostly as a workstation with external monitors so I intend to avoid having to use the subpar screen.
I preferred the Probook over Lenovo E14 G2 coz of 1) no soldered RAM in Probook, 2) usb-c separate from power port so I have more cabling options. 3) extra hdd bay so I can use my current disks and 4) Lenovo disassembly guide shows how to remove fan and heatsink together but it is not clear if the fan can be removed separately from heat sink which is essential for regular cleaning. The HP manual shows how to remove the fan without meddling with the heatsink, and it is very easy to do. I have to unscrew the system board off my current laptop to get to the fan (which is every 6 months) so this was a big deal for me!
Btw, the 4500U Vivobook is available on Amazon now for as low as 57k (varies), but it is limited to 12GB RAM so no go for me. They briefly had the 4500U MSI 14 for 50K (I think) but I passed due to crappy ports. One could probably get a decent festive discount on some of these in a couple of weeks, but I wasn't sure the Probook will make it to Amazon/Flipkart for the festive season and I didn't want to miss out on the chance to get it.