You could just as easily have a bunch of old desktop computers with no network interface uplink going out of the room active whatsoever, running some basic GUI

You could just as easily have a bunch of old desktop computers with no network interface uplink going out of the room active whatsoever, running some basic GUI and libreoffice, connected to nothing but a dumb copper ethernet switch in the same room and an old HP laserjet with a 10/100 ethernet interface in it. No need to force people to deal with typewriters.