the true value is in discarded laptops, skylake or newer. a quick search in my local marketplace finds double-digits of those under $40, with busted screens and other failings, which aren't important for e.g. headless deployment.

they got low-power, capable CPUs to boot, you get a shitton of connectivity, storage options, etc. power brick included (gotta buy one for a raspi) and you don't dick around with arm64 packages and SD cards. if you don't need video decoding, you can go even older.

woudn't put too much trust in recommendations from dudes that rely on you constantly buying new shit, as their income depends on it.