Now, that said, I've recently started to see a bit of odd behaviour out of the computer that reminds me a bit of the first time it happened (hdmi and usb ports on the right side cause some weird stuff to happen sometimes), so there's a chance it could be on its way out again, but even if it goes soon the repair still feels like it was decent value to me, and besides, I now have a new 16' MBP coming to replace it, so it lasted me to pretty much exactly where I needed it to. I've also been fortunate in that it's the only repair this machine has required in the almost 10 years that I've had it now.

4+ years later and I'm typing this post on the same computer, so I'm quite happy with the decision I made. I was in a very similar position to the one you describe - $500+ to repair a computer worth roughly that (give or take), or drop $2k+ to replace it? The second option wasn't really an option at the time due to being a student with a low-paying job, so I went with the repair. I have a mid-2012 mbp retina, and somewhere around 2016/17 I had the logic board die on mine. I've been reading these forums for a while now but I made an account so I could reply to your thread.

Signs of mac logic board failure