That makes no sense at all. If the company is spending $2-3k, for something they charge only $200, then it is an introductory price. To get you hooked. They have to charge you $3-4k at some point of they want to make money. Their suppliers want to get paid, and their investors want to stop losing money eventually. By ask means take advantage while the deal is good, but donâ(TM)t be so naive as to expect the deal to be good forever.

When prices change, evaluate priorities.

If a tool costs a thousand dollars but will generate sufficient profit or save time or add convenience to justify the expense, I'd buy the tool. A thousand bucks is quite affordable for many skilled trades machine budgets. Tradespeople are normal people too.

If a thousand bucks is not affordable, choose different parts accordingly, for example using multiple smaller and/or different storage drives.

If a toy costs a thousand dollars and that is too expensive, choose a different toy or save up for one you prefer. It's easy to not buy new hardware which doesn't make one money.

If buying the entire machine at once is unaffordable, buy parts gradually.
If a used machine solves one's problem for less money, buy proven used PCs.

I got an Idea. How about locating and deleting data centers that host these things? Deleting them from existance.

I wonder what they will do when the cost of AI increases?

We all know that AI companies are selling their services at a loss. Often on a cost-of-compute- basis, but even more so when you factor in model training costs incurred with investor cash. And that is even before we account for how the shortages of relevant hardware and server space for running all of this are driving up the costs of memory, chips, etc. Or the fact that the energy crisis is only getting started, and will impact literally every part of the value chain for addressing the current and future demand.

Most of the sunk costs to date, have been funded with investor cash, but those investors are going to start wanting to get paid back with a strong multiple of their investments to date. That means, as companies reorganize around the use of AI - at the current prices - they are creating a potential nightmare of cost forecasting and control when the AI vendors all decide it is time to start generating that pay-back by sticking the screws to their customers. This is CLASSIC ENSHITIFICATION.

If the workstation's purpose is your job it may be worth upgrading. That's easily measured with money.

If it's solely a toy, decide how much fun you can effortlessly afford.
Non-bleeding edge PCs still do what they were bought to do.

There are many ways to enjoy computers. Home lab enthusiasts assign roles to their computers to conveniently offload tasks and if so inclined run a variety of OS. Retro gamers often have multiple PCs to suit their OS and software of choice.

Users with leftover RAM modules have ways to use them including used server boards which are plentiful and cheap in complete systems. Not requiring some "ideal" PC is liberating.

The cost-effective way to use ewaste is mixing it with other ewaste which has become quite popular, "home lab" enthusiasts being common examples. Another way is using multiple SFF and tiny PCs so each machine can be optimized by the owner. They don't use many modules, but 8 or 16GB can be useful if loads are reasonably limited.

Thank God I've never had to live with a fucking HOA......

your dryer might be 50A and your AC 40A, but they rarely go at the same time. Same with the stove which has a 40A plug.

I take it you've never lived anywhere in the US south, or even the US west (AZ, parts of TX, etc)....from about April through start of NOV.

Having all of those on at the same time is quite common....especially any combination you want to make with AC.

My AC has clicked on and pretty much will not click off till first part of November....I'm in New Orleans.

Thankfully, my water heater, stove and oven and dryer are gas....but not everyone has the luxury of gas so yes, all those electrics can easily be on at same time, especially with a family of any size...and especially on weekends.

Congress (Article I) has passed many, many laws without veto from the president (Article II) which have withstood challenges in the Supreme Court (Article III) which have established policies of wealth distribution,

Err....exactly which many laws have given us wealth redistribution ?