I won't use a device that is significantly behind on security updates.
I will absolutely use an OS that only has the features available at time of release. Might be preferable to the Apple situation in which devices seem to get slower and slower over time as you jump to major OS revisions with heavier base requirements.
On the other hand, websites generally expect modern browsers. I don't recall if they separately version the base ChromeOS from the actual Chrome browser that is primarily[1] what people do with these machines. I'd probably want the latter to be fairly up-to-date on features as well as security...
[1] Recent Chromebooks also can run arbitrary Linux containers. The feature is called "Crostini" or "Linux on ChromeOS".
Security updates don't really do squat in the realm of reassuring you that you're okay, and definitely wouldn't even be a thing if we had comprehensive documentation of the underlying hardware/firmware these bastards are running on. Software/hardware gets better with age, but only with full disclosure and a full, unblack-boxed picture of what you have to work with.
God, how I wish for a modern, fully documented, fully public Mobo+Processor+chipsets of reasonable oomph. Kill the firmware blackbox, and watch the quality that can be bootstrapped. If I live to see the day when the leading cause of electronic equipment retirement is "50th time reflowing solder, and oopsed", I can die a happy man.
I won't use a device that is significantly behind on security updates.
I will absolutely use an OS that only has the features available at time of release. Might be preferable to the Apple situation in which devices seem to get slower and slower over time as you jump to major OS revisions with heavier base requirements.
On the other hand, websites generally expect modern browsers. I don't recall if they separately version the base ChromeOS from the actual Chrome browser that is primarily[1] what people do with these machines. I'd probably want the latter to be fairly up-to-date on features as well as security...
[1] Recent Chromebooks also can run arbitrary Linux containers. The feature is called "Crostini" or "Linux on ChromeOS".