Please forgive me for failing to get this idea across clearly, and I will try again, because I consider it an important one:
There are people in the world, many people, who do not have any access to either money or the ability to choose their computing device, and the only devices they have available to them, if they are lucky, are the ones which they have already been granted by the circumstances.
These people include, but are not limited to, people in disadvantaged financial situations, such as countries with low monetary flow; those living in abusive households, especially minors; those imprisoned or otherwise having their freedom restricted; those attached to a device for sentimental reasons; those who are able to exchange money for a device, as you suggest, and are waiting for it to arrive.
To the overwhelming majority of the world, 300 dollars, or even 20 dollars, is a huge sum, one that is either unattainable, or can only be attained through much struggle, difficulty, and sacrifice.
To an individual in such a situation, their Chromebook, or 10-year-old Android phone, or 20-year-old PC, may be the only option at accessing the digital world. And we should do everything in our power to facilitate their ability to use such a device.
I can’t argue with that. That is why I hope end of life chromebooks are not landfill. A good outcome is a container of them going to help poor people.
Prisons are an interesting one. The constraint is political not financial, at least for US prisons. Probably giving someone a access to a $1k computer requires $10k to feed the rent seekers inbetween. And that is if we even value not punishing prisoners beyond the fact they are inside anyway.
