I tend to use other people's cast-offs at work. Win 10 slow? JG gets an upgrade! I whip the SSD or M.2 or whatever I'm using out of the old one and pop it in the "new" one.

I've always kinda wondered what System76's stuff is like. Battery life'd be the main priority for my use case. (I really like my M2 Air for this)

Had a bad experience with System76 in the past.

I have some preferences in hardware (Vendors are still riding the 4k-in-laptop-size bandwagon) and Thinkpad has good customizability.

Just looked into Malibal, they have no less than WQHD currently and i get a top of the line customized Thinkpad for less than their 2000+.

Look at the prices.

I didn't know about Starlabs but apparently THEY HAVE SHIPMENTS TO MEXICO YES!!! regarding your question these are these major reasons:

• for the most purists, the vendor should have a certificate from FSF saying that "it respects your freedom" a thing that almost no company have (at least that's what I saw in modern vendors)
• in my case and other regions, it's way more probably you can get a Thinkpad easily and more cheap than one from those mentioned

I used this guy in the past. They deal clevo.

https://configurelaptop.eu/

Great service.