Yeah, since the APFS transition in particular, macOS is unbearable on an HDD. And Apple still sells the base iMac with a 5400rpm drive. Ought to be criminal.
Well, HP at least used to sell their laptops with a powersupply that could not power the laptop enough to run at the speed it said in the specs. For getting full speed you had to buy a bigger powersupply from them. Saw this on a computer that someone donated to the sportsclub because they bought a new computer to replace the old slow thing. Turns out all that was needed was a bigger powersupply.