By ‘viable’ I mean that companies can charge enough to remain in business by catering to a market segment that is willing and able to pay for the differentiation at margins sufficient to maintain the boutique sales channels necessary for low volume specialty goods.
Basically it is analogous to the audiophile market where discerning listeners are expected to pony up thousands of dollars on each piece of gear.
That’s my take.
YMMV.
Back when the Athlon 64 was new I was very annoyed by noisy desktop computers and went through great expense and trouble to pick out quiet parts for a PC, frequently I found the reviews of quiet PC parts from sites like Tom’s Hardware were just plain wrong and that from the power supply to fans and hard drives I had to try multiple parts before I got something really quiet.
I am thinking about building a new PC but I haven’t done it for years since I was so traumatized.
A note on gaslighting:
If Bob hears something and Alice doesn’t, it is normal for Alice to doubt Bob’s claims…though that isn’t ideal, it isn’t really gaslighting because when it comes to sound quality some. people can hear a difference in a demagnetized audio CD and others on gold plated conductors for digital audio.
Without a relationship with some degree of intimacy, defaulting to the predominance of one’s own experience reinforced by the consensus of public opinions is not unreasonable.
YMMV.
As a general guide though - SSDs are silent, and be quiet! (bequiet.com) has PSUs, CPU coolers, cases and fans optimized for silence (including coil whine)