The “upside” of planned obsolescence is that devices are markedly cheaper if you’re willing to not live on the bleeding edge (which is itself just marketing fomo bs…)

Case in point… recently had to replace my phone. Since I now feel like a liability carrying around newish £500 one I took a look at some 2-3 years old. I eventually picked one I sort-of wished I’d gone for last time around except now I was spending 20% of what it would have cost me back then. So it’s a little closer to the point of being obsolete than what it’s replacing. But seriously. The amount of money people spend desperate to stay at the pinnacle of camera technology (that they can’t really tell the difference on) or for Apple “AI” (I mean… god… really… you’re a smart independent person. How has Apples marketing team gotten this far into your brain?) is crazy. But the massively cheaper deals for what are, objectively, still amazing devices is something that only happens because of technology churn and “planned obsolescence”.

That’s not true. Businesses charge the most people are willing to pay.

I’m sorry you’ve been convinced that lowering your standards resulted in cheaper prices. It did not. It only resulted in worse products for us and higher profits for businesses.