You can always get the Pi Zero 2 W, which is still more capable than the orignal Pi was, and costs even less, even after all these years.
Or the 1 GB version of the Pi 4. For many projects, even that is overkill. Not everyone needs the stuff Pi 5 brings, like dual 4k60 monitors or the PCIe slot.
Just buy whatever your use case requires. The “zero” line has kind of filled that very low cost niche for now.
You can always get the Pi Zero 2 W, which is still more capable than the orignal Pi was, and costs even less, even after all these years.
Or the 1 GB version of the Pi 4. For many projects, even that is overkill. Not everyone needs the stuff Pi 5 brings, like dual 4k60 monitors or the PCIe slot.
Just buy whatever your use case requires. The “zero” line has kind of filled that very low cost niche for now.