>Anyone who gets on to the latest and greatest version of macOS with hardware that’s older than five years would be taking big risks. In general (with several exceptions), the longevity of the hardware was one of the attractive factors while paying a premium for Macs (also lesser e-waste is a bonus). But deeper problems in macOS could more than offset such benefits (resulting in more cries about planned obsolescence).

This has been a problem since the advent of downloaded OS installations (complete move as of 10.7). Other software, too. With Mac OS, some portion is only a little past a beta state, and some hardware gets cut off before that same portion of the OS gets better. While I'd prefer how it used to be—an OS was largely stable and feature complete when shipped (on a disc or disk)—there's no reason for me to think that approach will ever return.