And EBay is awash in $50 refurbished Optiplex machines, that should run fantastic with a new ssd and a fresh Linux install.

You had a point until here.

I agree with your points before that. The crucial thing to note is that a Pixel or a MotoX works out of the box. If you're short on cash and don't need a high end phone for your job, there's no reason why you should splurge on a flagship.

Upgrading and installing OSes on a used computer are another thing entirely. Those aren't going to come out of the box and will require a degree of technical expertise that most people don't have.

Note: I work in infosec. Im very far from tech illiterate. I have strong enough opinions that the first thing I do on a Ubuntu install on a fresh VPS is to change my shell from sh to bash. Installing an SSD and Linux is very easy to me.

That doesn't mean that those skills are universal or that it's realistic to expect people to have those skills. Working knowledge of a computer doesn't involve installing an OS in a completely new environment they've never used before and switching from a GUI to CLI for basic things like installing and upgrading software.

It's cheaper, it's more than enough for most people's use cases, but those don't make it readily accessible.