Thank you for your kind observation, windoc. I could, theoretically, build another PC like it just on the cost of the peripherals, so yes, there is a considerable amount invested in this PC — well over ten thousand for sure. That may not seem like much money to some but I'm semi-retired, on a fixed income, soon to be forced into retirement and I still have three daughters to think of under my care. Nobody said life was fair, eh? But it sure can be one wild & crazy field trip!

Not complaining — only explaining.
Some of the cats in this forum are just starting. They haven't owned hundreds of computers yet. The thrill of getting a new PC is still fresh for them, so the quick and obvious solution is to simply buy another. I recall being like that. Then I moved on to building. These days, building doesn't really give you a whole lot of financial advantage in terms of material costs, but it does give you a bit more control over what goes into your PC. It's nice to be able to control the quality of the hardware that one puts into one's PC.
IF TPM2 were simply a matter of plugging a tiny little key into my TPM 1.2 port on the system board to convert it (as some have suggested) I would not hesitate. Alas, from what I've researched, Microsoft doesn't fully acknowledge these quick "conversions" either. Tom's Hardware forum makes it explicitly clear that this is a waste of time and resources. Others have said that it can seriously mess up your entire system and I have little reason to believe this should not be the case.
Do I have time for this? Short answer: No.
I'm typing this to you on another one of my many, many PCs. This is an AMD build. It "qualifies" for a Win 11 OS but it doesn't have it because the upgrade was so horrifyingly disastrous that I had to call Microsoft SUPPORT to "fix" it. Of course, Microsoft was utterly useless and it quickly occurred to me that I knew more about the OS than their tech support did. I had to reinstall Win 10. So much for the Microsoft nagging system check that kept reminding me that my PC qualified for Win 11. I figure if their fat cat company can keep nagging me about how my PC qualifies for Win 11 they had better have KNOWLEDGEABLE, SKILLED TECHNICIANS, capable of helping me with my problem when their bogus claims of compatibility go sideways. No, they have to do better than, "I'm sorry sir. You'll have to reinstall the operating system."
After I finish typing this I will continue with my Win 10 updates (because some here have suggested I haven't learned my lesson yet) and switch back (via KVM) to my good ole, solid, reliable Window 7 Ultimate on the Work Station we were discussing. My hardware firewall and my own security protocols seem to serve well enough for me
not to need TPM2 on that build. No, not at all, not ever. Frankly, TPM is about as useful as teats on a bull and Microsoft has spent a decade now proving it. Why ever would I want to install a problematic operating system like Windows 10 on my Work Station? Isn't it bad enough that my
GENUINE CERTIFIED copy of Windows 11 using my genuine certified Windows license key which I so graciously paid for at the Windows STORE won't even allow me to keep running LINUX in secure boot on the same system board that was in fact designed for multi-booting?? No, not ethical. In fact, very sloppy. This is the exact sort of thing Jody, a man I admire and respect, despite his whiny and annoying voice, has been trying to warn us about and it's going over people's heads like water over a ducks back.
Thank you for your time, Doc. (You don't mind if I call you Doc, do you?) Perhaps in the future, Microsoft will provide large language AGI shrinks with each OS for their clients to vent to. Perhaps this will be a Windows 12 feature.
For those of you who missed it: