This could potentially affect 90s-2000s era arcade games running older PC hardware.

https://www.zdnet.com/article/intel-to-remove-old-drivers-and-bios-updates-from-its-site-by-the-end-of-the-week/

That already happens with other manufacturers who either don't have the drivers available, have gone out of business, or were swallowed up by another company.

They're not actively supporting/developing the drivers...just offering them for download. Just having a legitimate place for download is all I would need.

The problem with 3rd parties is that you're not 100% sure if you're getting the latest version, or a malware-free experience. Lots of download hosting sites out there aren't always legitimate and clean.

Not only is there vintage hardware in the arcade world, but also the scientific, medical, and manufacturing fields. A lot of that stuff is specifically developed for or locked onto a specific set of hardware.

What about manuals, parts catalogs, and other reference materials?

We're not talking about manufacturing anything here. They're just files that have been preserved and available for download from the original source.

That only applies if you're a current owner. If someone acquires the hardware at some point down the road without knowing ahead of time that they were going to stumble upon it, they're going to be stuck. Or what about repair guys? I run across stuff all the time I've never worked on before, and need to download the associated documentation, ROMs, drivers, etc. You can expect me to download all of that stuff in advance without knowing ahead of time what I'll be encountering. That's just a silly argument.

So? People still use legacy stuff all the time.