This may be the central reason why the Mac Pro still exists. Ever since Jobs returned in 1997, Apple's Mac lineup has been designed around the idea of a ternar

This may be the central reason why the Mac Pro still exists. Ever since Jobs returned in 1997, Apple's Mac lineup has been designed around the idea of a ternary choice of "Good / Better / Best". They used to call the Power Mac configurations explicitly that. I suppose putting the Mac Studio guts inside a Mac Pro case wasn't a big design change, as long as they have the Pro manufacturing line still open. By shipping this lackluster design, they can wringe out a bit more revenue from the investment made in the Mac Pro tooling.