It's depend on your priority
If you're prefer better mechanical or industrial design, if you think that macbook is better, well, I'm no comment
if you're prefer long term usage, As you say, older model would less weird issue (Graphic/Wifi),
Intel cpu would less issue
(My desktop Ryzen5 2400g was randomly freeze before, but that freeze issue does not occur recently, maybe half year or one year? I'm not sure it cause by kernel upgrade or I've change some configuration)
You may choose a old laptop that you're able to replace battery, ssd(avoid mount on mainboard)
my experience, I'm using asus UX31LA with linux mint
(it was scrapped, waiting to discard, I've pick up from our accountant scrapyard)
intel i5-4200u
4GB ram (enable zram to increase ram space, you may pick a 8GB+ model)
256GB ssd (enough for me, but it depend on your use case)
if you're prefer long term usage, As you say, older model would less weird issue (Graphic/Wifi),
Intel cpu would less issue (My desktop Ryzen5 2400g was randomly freeze before, but that freeze issue does not occur recently, maybe half year or one year? I'm not sure it cause by kernel upgrade or I've change some configuration)
You may choose a old laptop that you're able to replace battery, ssd(avoid mount on mainboard)
my experience, I'm using asus UX31LA with linux mint (it was scrapped, waiting to discard, I've pick up from our accountant scrapyard)
intel i5-4200u
4GB ram (enable zram to increase ram space, you may pick a 8GB+ model)
256GB ssd (enough for me, but it depend on your use case)
replace battery by my own
it work over 4 years, and still working.