Because you need a printer, and their competitors are all just as scummy?
I suppose people don't research refill options ahead of buying a printer? This ongoing maintenance cost would be the first thing I'd look into.
My initial question wasn't meant to be a rhetorical one. I was genuinely curious if there is any upside/reason why one should buy HP (print quality or whatever.)
Avoiding their blobs may deny you of advanced features, but for documents where you're not aiming for max photo quality or color matching, it works very well.
It's 13 years old, but still runs like a champ. The network features are dead simple, like you'd expect. For $100, I think even the lifetime of the toner cartridges it came with is likely to be worth the cost.
I fully expect this printer to outlive my need to print things out.