Regarding the PS/2 Model 30 using an 8086, it's important to remember that average consumers didn't quickly adopt the latest microprocessors like they do today, and it was very common for manufacturers to use much older chips in newer products. Hardware was expensive, and the latest hardware was crazy expensive -- the PS/2 Model 30 with its 8086 had a list price of $2,295 ($5,952 in today's dollars), while the contemporary PS/2 Model 80 with its 80386 was $6,995 ($18,142 in today's dollars!). Also, the software commonly in use on IBM compatibles at that time (i.e. DOS) wasn't particularly suited for taking advantage of the newer hardware.

My school had a number of 8086-based PS/2 Model 25's. By the time I used them in 1991, they had been retired to second-tier labs, but they were still perfectly usable for checking email, word processing, telnet to the UNIX server, and some light games. (I remember Star Control ran particularly well on its quasi-VGA "MCGA" graphics.)