if you’ve got a 10-year-old Apple laptop, it’s harder to use normally than a 10-year-old Windows laptop.

Also, don’t use the Apple store for software on your laptop. Use a reasonable package manager like homebrew that doesn’t have the problems you describe. Or go find a mirror that hosts old MacOS packages and install it yourself.

Agree with both and able to do so cause I’m an IT professional and wo ked on all 4 major OSes in my past.

However, having to use an external package manager undercuts the advertising that they’re just plug and play.