Yes, this is undoubtedly also a factor. Cities offer incentives to these large companies to open offices because they have an impact on their surroundings (see [1]). Workers support surrounding businesses; with the workers at home, these businesses must surely struggle. I can't imagine that the cities are not putting pressure on the large companies to bring workers back to the offices.
> The most important thing I learned was that old computers are still fast — and quite usable as a daily driver.
I have to point out that your build isn't entirely an old computer. Having an SSD makes a major difference. If you were to use an IDE HDD or even an old SATA, you'd probably think differently.
While this the feedback in this mail indicates a problem, even if you remove the emotional language I don't believe it's constructive. Constructive feedback would not just indicate a problem, but also provide guidance/suggestions on how to correct it.
I sympathise with the author. Why should one have to put up with mails like this? I understand the argument of being professional, but it's very draining to have to absorb personal attacks and ill-mannered outbursts while never being able to respond in kind.
Given that the sender didn't provide constructive feedback, is seemingly not contributing financially, and can simply choose to not use the application, I don't see why a response in kind shouldn't be given. To me, Don's response was mild.
The animated GIFs are really distracting and detract from the writing. I eventually deleted them from the parts I hadn't yet read.
I have to say that Crump was incredibly forgiving and put in a lot of extra effort. I don't think anyone I've been taught by would have gone to this much trouble.
I'm afraid this is nothing new. I experienced similar frustrations - archiving didn't work, there were no notices about downtime, and support response was abysmal despite a Twitter account that was very active about US politics - all back in 2017. I left disappointed and with a refund in 2018.
[1] https://www.pbs.org/newshour/economy/making-sense/heres-what...