First, a Mac Studio with M1 Ultra is $3999. Second, people don't buy Macs only for performance. They also buy Macs for macOS, for integration between devices,

First, a Mac Studio with M1 Ultra is $3999. Second, people don't buy Macs only for performance. They also buy Macs for macOS, for integration between devices, for a system that is cool and quiet, for hardware acceleration of ProRes, for on-device privacy-preserving machine learning. Being a bit slower than competing AMD and Intel systems is acceptable, because you get so many other desirable properties in return. I'd definitely consider a Mac Studio with an M2 Max or M2 Ultra, if I didn't want something portable. I would never buy a machine with a competing machine with an Intel or AMD machine, because I don't want to deal with Windows or desktop Linux. Other people have another set of priorities and that is fine.