Yup, people seem to think that Macs are expensive, and they are compared to the low end market.
But when you actually try to find something that checks all the boxes a Mac does, including frankly insane screen brightness, it becomes hard to see something that doesn’t already get you into the “premium” or “luxury” market price.
What you’ll get is a ton of people who don’t care about X or Y, but a lot of these features are a one way street. You certainly didn’t care before, but switching to something else like a 400 nit screen (which at that 400 nits will drain the battery like crazy) you realize that Apple has put together a really winning *spread* of creature comforts you really don’t want to go back from…once you’re in the pool.