Some higher-end 486 boards[1] were made with PCI slots, so retrofitting them with an USB controller shouldn't be difficult? You'll still need a boot floppy to actually boot from an USB drive, I think?
It is still easier to find cdr than floppies anyway. I can still find some in brick and mortar supermarkets. Still useful when you have an old car and want to keep the original audio system.
Even EU institutions use cookie banners. Also, if it was just malicious compliance, there would have been years of time to fix the regulations so that such shenaigans would not fly.
I think the problem is that GDPR focuses on consent more than would be prudent. Regulation is usually introduced when some actions are not appropriate even when there was consent. For example, one is not allowed to sell spoiled food, no matter how clear warnings they gave to the customers.
I am getting somewhat confused about this. That website seems to be equating (semi-?)-reasonable measures with monstrosities such as banning or effectively banning e2ee.
It’s important to understand this is not just a rando on the internet. This is a former Member of the European Parliament who has been criticising and sharing developments on Chat Control for years. The post isn’t made in a vacuum, but made with the knowledge of everything which has happened up to now, including the “Chat Control 2.0”, which is different from what’s happening now. Every concern you see there has been discussed at length on other posts on the same website.
I don't think there are any particularly reputable brands of featurephones anymore. Nokia/HMD certainly isn't one: they have obnoxious bugs, they drop calls, and lack basic modern-day compatibility features like emoji in text messages (they display only an "unknown character" box) and group MMS.
However, it does not necessarily mean there is demand for a quality featurephone: it might be that the demand is so low that it does not make sense to manufacture one.
At least a while ago Element X broke bridging in a pretty annoying way, since all chats with more than 2 members were classified as groups, even if they were marked as DMs.
1. https://theretroweb.com/motherboards/s/asus-pvi-486sp3