Different products exist at different price points to cater to different customers.

If you want to sell a subsidized product with the implication that there will be ads, that’s one business strategy, but to say that it’s not viable to have a higher end product that will not sell the user data because it’s not commercially viable is something I’ll have disagree with.

Computer monitors with no smart features wouldn’t viable if that was the case.

A free 55 inch tv supported by ads would be subsidized. A big ticket item price likely does not change even if it intrudes on your privacy and the manufacturer makes additional income on your data. In that sense it’s not subsidized it’s just greedy business practices.

I’m not a fan of having very strict labels for things like that, If you use a server as a workstation fine ! If your workload can run on a Mac mini you can call it your workstation as well if you wish!