I used to think that as long as all you needed to do was some web browsing that older or underspeced machines were fine. But in the last few years websites have become insanely resource intensive. Even using something as seemingly simple as Gmail is a frustrating experience on older laptops (speaking as someone who just upgraded from a 2017 dual core MacBook Pro). I also have a hard time believing that the same hardware could handle that task much better if it used some lightweight linux distro. The browser engines are the same after all. You could swap Gmail for a lightweight email client, but I find that this approach of choosing software compatible with a capabilities of these low powered machines runs into some limitations sooner or later, e.g. when someone decides to sends you a Microsoft Office file, asks you to collaborate on a Google doc, insists on doing a meeting via Google Meet or Zoom. I may also want some of the other amenities modern laptops have to offer, like bright screens, long lasting batteries, the possibility of using a modern IDE or IDE like editor instead of having to learn VIM.