The “upside” of planned obsolescence is that devices are markedly cheaper if you’re willing to not live on the bleeding edge (which is itself just marketing fomo bs…)

Except the pace with which said edge moves too depends on how frequently most people replace their devices.

Meaning that without planned obsolescence combined expenses for tech of an average person per period of time would be the same.

people spend desperate to stay at the pinnacle of camera technology (that they can’t really tell the difference on)

Yes. People pay actual money for things they can't explain in words other than "new cool" or "3.141 times faster" or "14.88% better". I'm of an opinion that this concerns all computer things. Not even only personal computing. It's a tulip bubble that hasn't yet burst. A very big one.

If the essence of things we do with PCs hasn't changed since year 2003, but we do it the harder and more wasteful way due to vanity, there has to be an implosion.