People who have $1500+ to spend on laptops forget that the vast majority of people don't spend (and can't spend) that much on a laptop. So much of the market is

People who have $1500+ to spend on laptops forget that the vast majority of people don't spend (and can't spend) that much on a laptop. So much of the market is in that $500-$600 price range. You wouldn't be wrong to point out that an M1 or M2 Macbook is a far superior device, but it really doesn't matter. And in terms of specs, Apple is still not an incredible value for the money. The laptop I'm using now is a last-years model Thinkpad. I bought it refurbished, with a two year warranty included, for $250. It's got a 12 core (edit: 6 core, 12 threads) Ryzen 5000 series, and for less than $150 I've added 32 GB of RAM (total RAM 40 GB), and a 1 TB NVMe disk (the computer has slots for two). That's an absolutely crazy deal for $400, and the build quality on these Thinkpads is miles above cheap Dell Inspirons or whatever. For most people, this is a much more reasonable choice than spending $1500 on a laptop. My last laptop (Dell XPS) lasted over 12 years; I think the "laptop dies in two years" stories are the exception, not the rule, and Apple's laptops are certainly not lemon-proof, in that regard.