With DDR5 RAM prices skyrocketing, some mid-range laptops could soon ship with budget-level specs. TrendForce expects companies like Dell and Lenovo to stock more notebooks with 8GB of memory. These reasonably priced options may no longer handle intense office and gaming tasks.
I see it wholly as a loss, because it advances the idea of subscriptions for anything and everything, and Microsoft will be right there on the front lines taking advantage of the new revenue stream (so losing local installs won’t hurt them at all and is what they’re going for).