When I think of what features / lack of features make an entry camera and the market the camera is designed for...it can get complicated sometimes. I mentioned my first camera a relatively featureless SLR...the 1960's Pentax S1a...again no internal meter, max shutter speed of 1/500th second...just a basic, albeit rugged 35mm camera...with the standard F 2 , 50 mm Takumar 'normal' lens .
I bought it because I was required to have a 35 mm camera to take 'publishable' (as the boss said) pictures for the publishing company I worked for..when I was fairly fresh out of high school.
I didn't know the first thing about cameras or have much experience with them other than the old Box Brownie at home ...so that would qualify me as entry level. I got the most basic 35mm SLR camera I could find at the time...that would still do the job I was required to do and that camera was the Pentax S1a. If I recall it was about 20 bucks cheaper than the basic Nikon back then.
I bought the camera from a camera section in a large department store. There was an additional unexpected expense...I had to get a hand held light meter...my Sekonic for $ 9.95.
Then, back at the company I worked for, I underwent some brief training on how to load film, advance film, set my meter, focus my lens and off I went...snapping what I hoped were 'publishable' pictures. At first they weren't great, but also weren't bad, thanks to coaching from real pro photographers that worked for the firm.
There I was , an unusual sort...an amateur of the rankest level
....who because of a job requirement...had to learn photography real fast . I would say I was entry level . My camera was the cheapest new SLR that I could find...because that is all I could afford. So the cheapest 'good' camera I could find was definitely at the entry level of the market. I was told to get either a Pentax or a Nikon...nothing else...so I went with the cheapest, as that is what my budget dictated.
As an aside, I paid $ 9 @ month for about 12-13 months before it was mine.
Now if I was a young man in the present day, with these job requirements what would I get ? Probably another entry level DSLR...something along the lines of a Nikon D3400...or it's Canon equivalent....or maybe Pentax equivalent.