Bought a R3 1300X bout a year an a half ago on ebay for less than the price of a 1200 at the time.
Two months ago, buddy of mine offered me his R5 1600 for $50. I couldn't say no. Sold the 1300X for damn near what I bought it for.
Did I need 6 cores? Not really but, was to good a deal to pass up.
Honestly not a bad route. I always see everyone reccomending some high end hardware for the most basic tasks anymore.
I think it all comes down to each users specific use case. I'm currently sitting on my "budget" Ryzen.
Does EVERYTHING I need and plays pretty much any of my games anything at...
Closest for me is 100 miles north. So 200 mile round trip. Even driving the car (30mpg+), i'm lookin at $10-$15 in gas (depending on price of the day) and probably about 4 hours of my time if i don't stop anywhere else.
So... yea.
Working in an industry that allows me first hand views of rail transported coal. I can pretty much agree with this. Most of what moves by rail out of the Appalachian region is either metallurgical (for coke production) or export.
I think 4 cores are fine, based on your usage case and the amount of money you spend. My $60 Ryzen 1300X (was cheaper than the R3 1200 at the time) does everything I need. That obviously doesn't apply to everyone.