> I wanted a cheap travel laptop I could replace without blinking an eye at the price. I live in Europe, Thinkpads are the most common enterprise laptops I see while travelling. I might even slap an asset tag sticker on the cover to make it even more inconspicuous.

Fair enough - this seems like the key rationale.

But given the amount of effort tinkering to get to an acceptable machine, I’d wonder if there isn’t a machine that can be replaced at short notice ‘on the go’ that would represent a better compromise?