I agree with you on the Ideapads; the only reason to buy is on price: I bought a new one with Pentium Silver CPU and 4Gb RAM for $150 on sale and added 8gb RAM and installed Linux. With external keyboard and monitor it works great!

I have used an IdeaPad S540 for about 5-6 years. Upgrading RAM, WiFi modules along the way. Was bummed when Apple’s Mac Pro died on me 11months with no warning. And went back to IdeaPad again (this is where I gave up on Thinkpad). So I would swear by it. Not the current one, it’s got soldered RAM and I am less of a fan, but it just works - no issues.

Some lines are better than others. I avoid ideapads and yogas. I buy T series and on rare occasion an E series (if the price is too good).

For desktops, it's ThinkCentre Tiny all the way.