If you define a lease as a period of time where a device gets security patches, has this ever not been the case?
10.3 Panther required a G3 or better and USB, which (in laptop-land) dropped the pre-Lombard G3 Powerbooks from 1998. So the 2003 OS dropped 1998 machines, so just 4 years of coverage.
"Security vulnerabilities" weren't exactly the same thing in those days as they are today, with less online apps, but in a way it was also more obsolete more quickly because hardware moved quickly: you could have a 233Mhz to 300Mhz 1998 G3, but the new 2003 Powerbook G4s were clocked at 867Mhz-1.25Ghz - nearly 4x across the board.
I get more usage out of 5+ year old Macs now than I ever did in the past.
Well, sucks if you bought a Windows 10 device with an Intel 7th Gen processor in the first half of 2017. You will only be getting... ~8 years, just like Apple more or less; even if most PCs will probably last longer than that.
As for, "well we can install Linux..." that doesn't make even a measurable dent in e-waste.
You can still install Windows 11 on the 7th gen chip, they just don’t make it easy to encourage people to upgrade to secure systems. It’s not at all arbitrary though, in the way Apple culls supported machines.
"It’s not at all arbitrary though," - Literally Windows 11's launch was filled with months of controversy because the developers admitted the 8th Gen cutoff was arbitrary. Later we got some theories that it might have been MBEC support but not all supported processors have MBEC.
Only if you insist on thrashing the device after you're done with it. Be a sport an sell it or donate it to someone who will install Linux on it if you can't and you'll see that 'e-waste' (what a word...) problem disappear as quick as you can say 'linux'.
I'm one of those someone's by the way, not having bought any new laptop or server since 2001. I'm typing this on a 'late 2009' 27" iMac running Debian, parked next to a Thinkpad P-50 running Debian, traffic is going out through a virtual router on the DL380 G7 under the stairs running Debian. My children use machines running Debian as does my 85yo mother. Some of my friends have also seen the light and moved to Linux running on used machines, generally all it takes is to put an SSD in place of the spinning drive and the things 'fly'.
Windows XP got patches for over 10 years IIRC. It was a different time, but you did ask "ever"
And with previous generations of Windows there was nothing really stopping you from upgrading to a newer OS on the same old hardware - although you might run into serious performance issues with a modern Windows OS on 10+ year old hardware. But you could also switch to plenty of other OSes. I assume that's also an option for 7+ year old Macs?
The "landfill" comment was likely just about how software support periods have become so short, meaning for the current crop of computing devices (including actual computers, phones, tablets) the hardware itself almost always outlasts the company's support period for official software updates, which is disgraceful. I have drawers full of old phones that turn on, display is perfect/bright, battery is reasonably strong, can connect to WiFi, everything works, except the company threw their arms up and gave up on software support.