Pre-win 10, windows said my dad's computer couldn't upgrade. That it needed replacing. This was relatively common IME. As it happened, I managed to install it anyway and it ran at least as well as the previous Win 7 did. (Two other family computers were the same; a couple of computers at my dad's work I saved from the dump too [just by upgrading them, they continued to use them]).

Now they say he can't upgrade [that 'last ever version' thing didn't last, huh] ... I've not found a way around the current restrictions yet?

It's quite good at the moment, there are a flood of good second hand systems from businesses who are upgrading.

There's no problem with MS developing beyond their current systems. Indeed it feels like they go too far with backward compatibility. But lying (or putting in false requirements) in order to get hardware scrapped is just wrong -- do home users really need TPM2, seems more like a nice to have to me.

The reality is that most people will not repurpose a computer, they throw them out. Rarely (in UK) the device might make it to a computer recycling place. Heck, I've seen people throw out computers because the "you're low on disk space" warning came up.