"sir, that flight was yesterday"

That is the absolute least-surprising explanation.

I'm surprised to see it suddenly in wide use here, honestly. I've been 'in the linux community' for 25 years or so and only started seeing people use it in this context in the last month. Jarring isn't the right word but it seems sudden to me knowing the connotations from the mid-to-late 90s car culture.

barely anyone would bother spending a small fortune on a GPU

well, except datacenters. can't get enough of them and the datacenter card prices would make you cry.