we'll be able to get them. and yes, computers are often in the 'good enough for X' tier but that applies for all settings.
playing demanding games is mostly to the vid card, not the CPU. CPUs that are 8 year old can play modern games for example, and it has consistently just not mattered for a lot until you get major new tech. 1-2 year old tech right now ranks equally as high in terms of gaming ability despite new stuff, so yeah. you're overthinking it. everything is "good enough for X" because we don't know what the X is.
if you bought an AM2/AM3 motherboard, you could STILL be on it with modern equipment for example. that socket hasnt' changed for a good 8 or so years and was a miracle to last so long. what happens next? nobody really knows. sockets change, but they're lasting longer. my CPU is a year or two old now but it still performs damn high, well enough to be on benchmark charts and will continue to be there for another year.
i agree with your manager but that's because i vastly prefer to get something for 60% of the price and 90% of the performance, with the other 10% being stuff i don't use much. the processor isn't something you need to worry a lot on a 'serious machine,' i7 isn't needed. not in the sense of 'oh yeah it's not needed because i5 does everything,' but in the sense of 'it's not needed because the performance of an i7 is barely higher than an i5.'
same goes for FX and later Phenom IIs or Ivy Bridge and Sandy Bridge (this we needed to wait to see). there's nothing outdated about the AMD chips - FX is plenty new and matches up to the i5 damned nicely. Phenom II 1075T, 1090T, 1100T are ALSO all incredible CPUs. nothing outdated on any of that, just different technology with similar performances.
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The King Wang.
Listen up Urinal Cake. I already have something that tells me if I'm too drunk when I pee on it: My friends. - Colbert.