I have a used m75q running 16 full blown windows server vms and a few Linux servers and it draws about 35w and cost me $200 all in with 2tb of m.2 and 64gb of DDR4 ram and it's still got room to grow.
I also ran a data center and an MSP where we always sourced used servers and never had issues with them running for longer than their intended 4 to 5 year lifespan.
I have pretty heavy workloads I run for side projects for friends and run everything on 3com gig switches I also got used. HP still warranties them and releases firmware.
Schools use off lease hardware other than chrome books that get beaten to death by kids without problems for years.
I really fail to see your argument against used hardware.
The pi ecosystem has become a total accessory one where you need non standard power supplies and video adapters to connect them up where a single used desktop PC gives more value and less points of failure - and when things do fail you can find readily available off the shelf parts to fix them.
I also ran a data center and an MSP where we always sourced used servers and never had issues with them running for longer than their intended 4 to 5 year lifespan.
I have pretty heavy workloads I run for side projects for friends and run everything on 3com gig switches I also got used. HP still warranties them and releases firmware.
Schools use off lease hardware other than chrome books that get beaten to death by kids without problems for years.
I really fail to see your argument against used hardware.
The pi ecosystem has become a total accessory one where you need non standard power supplies and video adapters to connect them up where a single used desktop PC gives more value and less points of failure - and when things do fail you can find readily available off the shelf parts to fix them.