https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MacBook_Air#Supported_macOS_re...
The arbitrary cadence of abandonment is amazingly consistent and has no basis in hardware capabilities.
Previously every couple of years they'd come out with a new paid upgrade. But since they basically made Windows 10 a 'rolling distro', they've been losing a lot of income on this side.
As Windows 11 will be free for existing PCs but new PCs will have licensing included in the price (as they did with Windows 10), they have a strong incentive to have as many people as possible buy new PCs. Just as Apple does. After all, macOS mainly exists to sell Apple hardware, not the other way around.
It's no wonder their support model is changing, but I think it's sad they are dropping models so young. Windows used to be great at very long term support on hardware. Probably the best of the commercial OSes.
Moore's law is long dead for consumer perception of speed, even other components have stagnated lately. RAM size and HDD space has not really moved much in the last 5 years for a regular laptop; CPUs have gotten a bit faster but the average user will not notice the difference in their every day workflow.
I don’t want to use it any more so I don’t.
I’ve got a T495 Ryzen but I mostly use a M1 MacBook Air. If you think that there is stagnation in the last 5 years then you need to reevaluate that. These things are stupid fast.