The brother printer my spouse has had for ages is finally running out of ink and a quick chedk shows that they don’t make cartridges for it anymore, you cant reset them, and you can only buy dubious 3rd party options on amazon for $150 each. For that kind of money id rathet find a printer that let’s me put of the scam, but im not finding a lot of options there. Does anyone have advice?

like suggested already: go for laser B&W. I am on the Brother team: they’re much cheaper and very reliable (I replaced mine ~2 years ago after 15+ years using the previous Brother). And it this new one can still work with third party toners.
When I need to print in colors, which is rare to be honest, I just go make those prints to a copy shop. It’s much cheaper than having to purchase a printer and overpriced ink. And I don’t have to worry about cleaning it either.