That is so true, and can’t be underestimated. The budget laptop market absolutely blows these days. I got a 1300x768 screen, 8 GB RAM, 1 TB storage (albeit HDD), and ~2 GHz CPU in 2016. That was at Best Buy, who tried to sell $100 HDMI cables at the time, and wasn’t even a great deal, though I was fine with it.

Now the budget market is…pretty much the same. Slightly better 1080p screen, same RAM, less storage (but usually an SSD), slightly better CPU. It’s GRIM out there.