to play with, sure. but in the case of a backup machine, you want something reliable, rock-solid, low maintenance and easy to use, which is why I recommended debian

I don’t think there’s any useful way to put it to regular use for yourself, but you could:

• install debian on it and keep it around in case of an emergency. turn it on once in a while to keep it updated (doesn’t need to be that often, it’s debian)
• use it on the go (no worries about it getting stolen)*
• use it a place where you wouldn’t use your main laptop as to not risk damange (camping, hiking, on a trip, etc)*
• install a friendlier linux distro and give it away to someone who doesn’t have a computer (a 10yo cousin maybe)
• give it away to someone who has a computer, but doesn’t have a second one and might be happy to get one to play with

*though i imagine the battery is not in good shape given your “beaten up” description

unrelated but why is that window so massive?

https://wayland.social/

this is likely to keep as much people on windows as possible in an effort prevent people from being able to disable (or not have at all) things like location tracking, telemetry, etc. the us govt is probably going to crack down hard on “terrorist” threats (aka socialists, palestine supporters, and even anyone moderately critical of us imperialism), so they’re gonna need all the information they can gather about people’s online activities

maybe it’s the same reason some banks don’t work on rooted android phones: they want to prevent you to control how your system works bc they count on being able to extract as much information as possible from your computer usage without your consent

it is absolutely recommended to keep any system that has access to the internet up to date. i don’t know why people keep saying it isn’t

Another option is go with an Android tablet that has LineageOS support. You get fullish access to the system, but the system is still Android, so depends on what you want if that works for you.

that’s an acceptable possibilty, too. from my experience with my wife’s tablet, android is fine to work with now that emacs is available