All you need to run a lemmy instance is a bit of time, a computer and an internet connection though, same as running any forum. The costs of all those are rapidly decreasing over time and are well within “eh who cares i’ll just pay it” ranges; a smaller instance can easily be run for less than 5-10 bucks a month on the cloud, or for the cost of electricity if you have an old PC lying around.

A lot of costs of keeping servers running is employing people to do it; if its not too much hassle to keep one maintained, people will keep servers online.

Source: I run datacenters and support various cloud apps

If anything if you just go with “got good enough for the average user years ago”, that works.

I’m on a cat s62 pro with a 5 year old Snapdragon 660, and, while it shows its age, it functions just fine and will for the next few years.

I think they mean the software support lifecycle from the time of release, not how long the physical hardware lasts.

I also have relatively positive experiences with Chromebooks but also you can buy a Dell Latitude used on ebay and get the same experience. My $200 shop laptop from 2015 (Latitude 7450) which I only stuck an SSD into is going strong despite being kicked, stepped on, dropped, having oil and acetone spilled on it, melted a bit, and subject to other such garage abuse. (Though it is on its 3rd $15 keyboard)