For me the big deal was that by 1991 the 386SX motherboards were enough cheaper than the 386DX ones that I could afford to buy one just to screw around with a n

For me the big deal was that by 1991 the 386SX motherboards were enough cheaper than the 386DX ones that I could afford to buy one just to screw around with a new OS that some crazy Finnish dude had written, which would not run on the 286.