> a cost that a (somewhat wealthy) hobbyist can afford

$20,000 is a lot to drop on a hobby. We're probably talking less than 10%, maybe less than 5% of all hobbyists could afford that.

Up front, yeah. But people with hobbies on the more expensive end can definitely put out 4k a year. Im thinking like people who have a workshop and like to buy new tools and start projects.

You can rent computer from someone else to majorly reduce the spend. If you just pay for tokens it will be cheaper than buying the entire computer outright.