Not true at all. Maybe in the US but not elsewhere. I know more than a few developers that work on sub $999 laptops/machines. Specifically Dell/Lenovo laptops

Not true at all. Maybe in the US but not elsewhere. I know more than a few developers that work on sub $999 laptops/machines. Specifically Dell/Lenovo laptops seems to be the go to, since they can get them with 16GB RAM + 1TB hdd + non-discrete gfx, then they just swap out the hdd with 256/512GB ssd. About half of all my dev friends have given up on laptops (specifically apple gear, incl iPhone) and ALL of them built ryzen-based machines and work from home. My previous workplace refused to buy us laptops and built typical workstation PC's for everyone (quadcore i5 + 16GB RAM + 256GB ssd + 1TB hdd, this was around 2017). The guys that do have iPad's tend to hang on to them but swapped their iPhones with Android phones when they ditched their MacBooks. Main complaint? Ports & (Performance vs Price vs (ryzen pc with same price)).