Excellent article as usual.
For myself, technology is good as long as it is useful to me. Any vehicle I buy I buy a workshop manual for and go looking under the bonnet. Totally agree about the old cars. Here in Portugal cars are way over priced, even the older ones, but I was shocked when I started looking to buy an old one just how well they keep here. rarely will you see rust underneath. I assume, even by the sea with the salt air, the climate is good for cars.
This old laptop will last until it explodes. It has no battery and no hard drive. I run a full Ubuntu linux system on a 64gb SD card. It's a little slow, but still does what I need it to do. Linux of course was the main improvement. not too hard to learn but is more secure and much faster than windows could ever be. Linux has come a long way and is much more user friendly even for the novice.
My one rule of any technology is "Do I control it, or does it control me?"
I cannot be ruled by a piece of equipment nor have my life dictated by the needs of a computer. It works on my timescale or it goes.
Yes indeed, we all jump in somewhere we can afford on the technology chain, but as you said above, research, research, research and buy what you need not what looks pretty on the ads.