I agree with what you are saying but the companies these days don't care about older models as they like to conjure up newer models with more bells and whistles in order to bring in consistent revenue year-year. (Think iPhone)
ThinkPads are great, even back in the IBM days. I still have a couple that work great. The problem when IBM had them was that IBM didn't care about the consumer PC market as they were focused on their mid-to-large mainframes and services. As an ex-IBM employee I was fully aware.