They don’t care about Intel macs anymore. The same situation happened with ventura, older computers actually can support it, but Apple blocked the update so you have to do extra steps to install it. I mean it’s Apple, the only thing they want is to sell you more stuff so obviously they want you to change computer every 5 years or so. I respect the innovative technologies they always developpe, but I really hate the way they do business. Older Macbooks are way better on linux anyway these days.
The plus side of this is that they make more money doing this than selling data.
The downside is obvious.
Uh. We’ve seen longer support from Apple.
Are they trying to phase out Intel Macs?
I’m kind of surprised my 2019 intel is still going. I didn’t think it would continue getting support and I thought it was kind of a shame.
I made the fatal mistake of buying an Intel 2020 MacBook Air in August 2020. I was 17, saved up all my money and didn’t care about Apple silicon.
How long until they kill my 3 year old computer?
Fall of 2025 if you’re (un)lucky
Apple standard is 6-7 years for latest OS support. My 2017 Intel MBP still going strong. Had one free battery replacement because this generation of MBPs plagued by quality control issues — butterfly kb, poor hinges, poor heat management, highly sensitive to dust.
Of course, it won’t get Sonoma but still very useful for occasional out of the home/office work (ie, airports, coffee shops, libraries, …). Plus since I mostly VPN into office/home assets, it’s more of a dumb terminal now and offload heavy workloads to beefier machines.
Don’t be too worried. Open Core Legacy patcher will keep your MacBook running on the latest operating system for many years. I put macOS 13 Ventura on my 2011 MacBook Air and it ran very well. 
Disappointed my 2017 iMac is no longer supported but probably time for an upgrade anyway. I have a M1 MBP so rather than replacing my iMac with another all in one I’ll probably just run it as a desktop until i get a Mac Studio.