Unfortunately, the state of non-Apple hardware makes your parent’s comment a defensible position. Btw, using Linux in general means having “some unpaid volunteer do it for you”
Regarding state of non-Apple hardware. Well, my laptop just works. Literally zero hardware or compatibility issues. Maybe Macbook is faster in artificial benchmarks, but in my day to day usage, Thinkpad is more than fast enough.
Maybe using Linux on a desktop, but using Linux in general is >80% paid developers [1]
[1]: https://www.linuxfoundation.org/hubfs/Reports/LinuxKernelRep...