Yeah, I have an AMD FX-8150 (AM3+) based desktop tower from 2012, which I recently wanted to upgrade, and which largely inspired my comment :)

Even with AM4 based CPU, I'm under the impression that recent CPUs cannot always use old mothercards.

GP said after "5/10" years. AM4 was only launched in 2016, and is already "showing cracks" in support, where old motherboards will, in practice, not support new CPUs without juggling firmware.

Obviously I can't predict the future, but I feel like AMD will release a new socket within a generation or two, which fits within the "5/10 year" mark.

Sure, but 5-10 years is a long stretch, considering we are talking about a notebook that you can't upgrade once it is built. Surely there's a middle ground where upgrades should be possible within a couple of years?

Also, 16GB sounds awfully low to me. Why has the laptop industry decided nobody needs more than that? It seems to be the limit for laptops with soldered memory, with few laptops coming with more than that. Anyway I voted with my wallet and bought a laptop that has a Ryzen CPU and upgradable memory and SSD, and a very manageable weight.