Imma be real… Arch has been the most consistent system I’ve used to date.
I’ve been using linux off and on since like 2008. I jumped around from ubuntu, fedora, opensus, popOS, centOS, etc… I’ve had manjaro and now arch as my daily driver for probably 4 or more years now and Arch updates have only ever broke one thing, one time, and it was more of a audio pipewire issue than it was really archs fault.
arch updates do not deserve this slander, its been very reliable for me, more than probably any system i’ve ever used.
Unfortunately some old tech does just start becoming obsolete at some point. sure you can force old software on to it but unless its designed to just interact on its own or with some other equipment thats stuck in time, it usually ends up not being worth the trouble or time, especially when you can get pretty powerful (comparison wise) equipment for cheap. chrome books for example are dirt ass cheap and some times a better solution than trying to get a super old system running again.