Apple SE is of course not really "low end". But I do agree with your overall point; back when I worked at a computer store people would come in to buy a laptop

Apple SE is of course not really "low end". But I do agree with your overall point; back when I worked at a computer store people would come in to buy a laptop, and they wouldn't want a HP – even when that was actually a good model and a good fit for their needs – because they had a bad experience with a HP printer. I think that's actually pretty fair too, although I usually explained that the people who design the HP printers most likely never even talked to the people who design the HP laptops, and that even within $brand laptops there are are huge fundamental differences. I suppose that overall, on balance, the brand recognition of "Dell" or "HP" outweighs the negative associations people have across the product range.