Not sure I agree. They are built to last, yes, but would be a pain to get fixed if they break down. If it were me, I'd have preferred something like a Thinkpad.
On the contrary, usual recommendations, like business grade retired fleets were a lot more uncommon, because "business" work laptops on the area were just consumer grade whatever was cheap at the moment
The weird ocasions you saw stuff like Thinkpads or similar, they commanded a premium because the techies WANTED them