yeah I don’t know what I was thinking posting on r/macbook

I have a 13" Dell device with an I5 that I got from work which is sold at $1799. Not all non-apple devices are cheap.

Where do you think Apple gets their batteries? I think you overestimate the amount of battery manufacturers in the world.

Yes Amazon/Aliexpress is wild west with lacking QA, and high prices are no guarantees for quality. Hell I have first hand experience (working at a mayor LCD manufacturer) that 90% of all QA rejects end up on aliexpress (or equivalent).

However you cant fault apple for limiting support on older devices, probably old stock is drying up and production of spare parts has stopped. Poor quality 3rd party is the only option you have.

You can however fault apple for your device not functioning properly because the battery is dead (the infamous “PROCHOT” throttling when any part of the laptop is missing).

whilst I don’t argue your “planned obsolescence” dig at Apple, no other manufacturer is supplying spare parts for 8 year old models, regardless when purchased.

Regardless, I agree with you that the device is far from obsolete. I myself am rocking a 2016 MBP, but it was a hell replacing the keyboard and battery.

Yes, both bootcamp installation and ubuntu 22.04 are still receiving security updates.

As for OSX, no not receiving updates.