Much more interesting in my opinion is another part of this same project - Windows 11 for the Surface Duo[0], which, given the much newer SoC, actually provides a somewhat usable Windows experience that can actually run x86/64 software at a serviceable speed. I bought a Duo on the cheap specifically to do this with it, and I've actually found it convenient to have a true pocket Windows PC on hand every now and then. A lot of stuff doesn't work (camera, built-in speakers, charging in Windows), but they're working on it, and a bunch more does work (Bluetooth, WiFi, autorotation, 4g). Here's[1] a full list of what works and what doesn't. They're also working on the Duo 2, but compatibility with that one is way rougher right now.
Not really sure what exactly would be optimal, but Haiku's pretty performant on virtually any relatively modern hardware (less than 10 years old and not overly cheap) since it's so light.
I'm not actually sure how recent this is. Clicking through the Wayback Machine for their FAQ (http://web.archive.org/web/20150813135145/https://www.haiku-...), it looks like they've shipped the 32-bit versions with both GCC 2 and a newer version since at least 2015, starting with GCC 4 and getting newer as the years passed.
I'd say iffy on the first. The native browser is based on a modern port of WebKit, but it's buggy and not feature-complete. Things like Youtube work in-browser, but not well (buggy player, sometimes choppy playback, etc.). Wasm doesn't work. It's otherwise pretty functional. There's no Firefox/Chromium. There are alternatives to the native browser, but they're not significantly better.
It has the second, and third (Python 3 is ported). It's POSIX-compliant, so there's tons of Linux/Unix CLI stuff available.
There is a package manager with a lot of software, both native and ported. Many of the staples are available (LibreOffice, VLC, etc.), but there's also a lot missing, some with alternatives (there's no GIMP, but there is Krita, for example).
Overall, I think it's usable as a basic system, but you could definitely run into some issues with software availability and web browsing if you want to do more powerful stuff.
It's not my 'position' that there's a list of hardware; there literally is one (edit: and it's not exhaustive).
I really don't see how Haiku "requires" you to take it seriously. It's clearly marked as beta. Even though I disagree with those who might call it daily driver-ready, I don't understand the source of this hostility. If you don't want to "waste your time" with it, then don't. It's beta software developed by volunteers, none of whom are forcing you to download their OS.
Like I said, it sucks that it doesn't start on anything you own, which doesn't take away from the fact that there's literally a massive list of hardware it does actually run on.
And you're right, I created an account to comment on this thread. If you think disagreeing with you on this means I'm "promoting" Haiku as some sort of shill (my two points were literally that it's an OS and it boots on hardware, how controversial) then you're entitled to your opinion I guess.
It's fine to dislike Haiku because it doesn't run on your hardware, but it's pretty ridiculous to assert it isn't an OS because it "can't run on an actual computer". Haiku runs on tons of hardware, including most of the machines I've tried it on, and it probably runs on far more devices than Risc OS ever has/will.
[0]https://github.com/WOA-Project/SurfaceDuo-Guides
[1]https://github.com/WOA-Project/SurfaceDuo-Guides/blob/main/S...