Just a thought, but DOSDude historically has made patches so you can put the latest MacOSs on older Mac hardware. Catalina goes onto Macs from 2008 or so without issue; I'm sure Big Sur will be the same. The process is automated and requires no special technical knowledge. My 2010 Macbook 16/120SSD happily runs the latest MacOS, for example.
I don't see official Apple support going away as a big deal for home machines, as long as you have another hardware service provider for the replaceable basics (keyboard, drive, etc.) nearby and they're in fact replaceable. When the hardware isn't replaceable, yes, that's more of an issue.
For a work machine, sure, I wouldn't do it.
I don't see official Apple support going away as a big deal for home machines, as long as you have another hardware service provider for the replaceable basics (keyboard, drive, etc.) nearby and they're in fact replaceable. When the hardware isn't replaceable, yes, that's more of an issue.
For a work machine, sure, I wouldn't do it.