Crysis 2 doesn't fit the 10 year timeframe OP mentioned ;)
cron
500.000 Euro is more like 535.000 USD. Still ridiculously expensive, as expected.
Renewable fuels exist and are used today, but the efficiency and pollution aspects still apply.
I would say that "on prem" defines a location, "selfhosting" an action. You can do both at the same time, e.g. selfhosting nextcloud onprem.
Apparently, it is not only my oberservation, but the article says similarly:
The inconsistent approach to backward compatibility in decades past may also have played a part.
However, I'm not a db admin and my perspective might be biased (infosec).
I would say that this is a sign of a bad product. Apparently, compatibility between SQL server versions is not great.
Whoever uses studded tyres probably has a good reason for it. And they are very rare, even here in the alps with long and snowy winters.
Probably overkill, but for projects like this I've setup WordPress in the past. Once everything was done, I converted the WordPress page to a static site with httrack and use the static version.
This gives the ease of setting up and editing combined with the stability and security of a static HTML website.
While you can probably use them for some small tasks (like a switch, a file server with a USB thumb drive or a print server), you're probably better off if you can sell them and buy a raspberry pi or similar.
The Fritzbox 7530 for example could be sold for 50€ (at least in my country).
Great tool for documenting your setup. I use this at work a lot