It all depends on where one got their start in computing. I started on a Mac in 1996, and though the keyboard that it came with had home/end/etc I never learned to use them because I didn’t do much that was keyboard intensive, with most of my computer usage being drawing/graphics, games, or web browsing.

By the time I’d started working as a dev fulltime where those keys might’ve been useful, laptops had taken over and my work machine was a MacBook Air which wasn’t large enough to fit those keys even if they’d wanted to, and so I learned the built in macOS text nav shortcuts. They were never a workaround for me because I’d never used the home/end/etc cluster in the first place.

Even today when using Windows or Linux it’s with a 60/65% keyboard without those keys because that’s what’s comfortable. Reaching over to hit home/end on a larger keyboard would feel odd with how far removed it is from the rest of the board.

> or the workarounds that had to be implemented for the lack of PC keys (Home/End/PgUp/PgDown)

Those keys are not lacking, but on laptop keyboards they are hidden behind the fn+arrow keys. But they also are not workarounds or replacements for those keys. On macOS Home and End scroll the document to the beginning or end, not the cursor to the beginning or end of the line. That can be done with cmd-arrow.

I always hated the home/end keys. The way Mac does it is way better and I didn’t really start using Macs until two decades after I used windows and Linux. Cmd+left/right is way easier to use, especially on a laptop and custom keyboard.