Engineers that can't engineers, can't engineer. Are we talking about tools that can't do the job or "the best tools money can buy" vs your average computer?

Engineers that can't engineers, can't engineer. Are we talking about tools that can't do the job or "the best tools money can buy" vs your average computer? I could care less if my carpenter has a Dewalt power drill or a Festool power drill. Seems like something you could quantify pretty easily. Arstechnica or Phronix or someone could build up a $1000 machine, a $2000 machine and a $10000 machine and build various open source projects on each and publish the times. IDE reaction time might be harder to quantify but I bet you could do it. My hunch from 10000 feet, you'll see an appreciable difference between like $1000 and $2000 but between $2000 and $10000 it won't be that substantial or it could be attributed to a $300 upgrade (SSD vs. spinning platters) or something. If the difference is that big, nobody would ask this question, everybody would have $12000 workstations on their desk at work and $5000 laptops to carry home, that's just how it would be.