counterpoint: I have smart coding at this very second, and I am running it on 128GB of ddr4 with a 16GB gpu. (Qwen 3.8 Flash Next).

I expect to continue to have this, and more, as smaller models become even more capable. I also expect hardware prices to resume going down once the supply crunch ends.

I see no need to stop owning things or change my expectations around ownership, nor will I accept something like that.