Right now my daily ride is an 80s steel touring bike. Straight 1" steerer, threaded headset. Threaded bb. Cantilever brakes. Shimano 600 indexed downtube shifting from the 90s, hyperglide cassette. Can fit fenders, racks and 37mm gravel or winter tires. I can get all spares for it cheap and they are actually being manufactured still, not everything can always be bought off the shelf from the LBS though. For example a fine quality 7s cassette costs a fraction compared to a modern 1x12 cassette. If I crash, I only trash a cheap brake lever, not a brifter that costs hundreds. Maintenance is easy because the technology has been there for 40 years, once you learn it you´re done. They are trying to force us to buy new stuff for no other reason than to get money from us. There´s been very little development in the modern quality bicycle in the past 40 years(with the exception of the mountain bike, which is arguably better today compared to the 90s). Honestly, we could have stopped most of the development in the 90s and be perfectly happy!
Wow, somebody really suckered you into buying all that high tech stuff. Cantilever brakes? 7 speed cassette? Pfffft.
Should have bought one of these:
54" UDC MK3 PENNY FARTHING - BLACK/RED | Unicycle.com
Technology moves along, making bicycles faster, safer, lighter, more aero. No one is forcing you to buy new, but you have to understand that eventually, old technology can no longer be supported and parts are going to become unavailable.(That being said, I think that what SRAM has done is terrible, and is why I will stay away from their products.) Hey, the way things are looking, you may not be able to buy spark plugs for your internal combustion powered car (you know, the one you only take out on Sundays, because all the gas pumps have been replaced by EV charging ports) in about 20 years.