Raspberry Pis are out of stock because 1) companies that used them in production and got those production builds certified in some way get preference and 2) scalpers are taking the rest of the stock and doubling their money with it as it drops.
Older Xeons (and similar hardware) aren't worth running unless you have access to really cheap electricity; upgrading your system is cheaper than paying for the electricity you'd be wasting otherwise, even if you're staying a gen or two behind by buying datacenter surplus from eBay et al.
I understand your consternation, as some devices (e.g. cell phones) and some applications (e.g. SaaS apps) definitely appear to exhibit rent-seeking behavior. But that's no reason to declare literally everything a conspiracy, which just makes you appear to have some wires crossed.