That makes sense.

Unless you need, like me, 24-32 GB++ of RAM. Dual HDDs, and a whole lot of cores to run 3-4 VMs at a time.

Then the laptop is so resource-poor that it is rendered useless for the workloads I described in the article.

This article wasn't about how to make a "cheap home server"---it was about replicating real data-center-class hardware in the home and how to do that cheaply.