I'm a software developer and an older laptop is not great for productivity. I have an old Dell Latitude from 2017 and I pumped as much life into it as I could. Bought more RAM, an SSD but despite all that, it's a pain to run the IDEs I need to use for work. I keep it as a backup and work on an M2 Max now.

Same goes with my S.O. who is a Chemist. Older computers are just not ideal for new software.

Age is not really the only aspect here; almost certainly top tier 2017 Latitude is more powerful machine than bottom tier brand-new Latitude today.

Or in my social circles they want to appear to be top 1%.

The usability on the user's has been addressed by other people quite well.

There is then the issue of developers. Who gets the job of detecting which gimmicky shape a screen is? Web browser developers or website developers? Maybe my viewpoint is from being used to rectangular screens. I'm also not a web developer but mobile. I already hate having to implement portrait and landscape layouts. Please don't add a star shaped phone.

I vote for the star shaped phone. And against. Really, both at the same time. This would be terrifyingly awesome.

Break even on publishing costs. What about the man hours put into development?

You may have made several mistakes.

First is 2 months is too long to work on a game. 2-3 weeks max. Make game -> release -> make new game. Keep them coming. Rovio made 50+. If they'd spent 3 months on each, they'd have drowned.

That problem I think also leads to the rest. Most of which has been said. Once I made my first app which took me ~1 month, I've pushed times to 1 week. Keep them coming.

Another issue is salivating at the money before you create the user-base. Get the users up first. The money follows them.