Would be sweet except for the price. Such a machine would easily be $7000 base, loading it with all the BTO options would double that.
There are fair number of foks who advocate strongly for an "large screen" iMac who assume that Apple is going to give them the 32" screen 'for free' or 'almost free'. The 32" iMac will cost maybe $100=200 more than what a Mac Studio with equivalent internals costs.
Folks looking for something like the XDR size and resolution/color for about the same prices or less , but with a Mn Pro (or better) computer inside.
Mostly it is based on the initial pricing for Dell 5K displays being very high and Apple attaching a lower price to bundle it with a mid range desktop components. Around $2K for the computer and get a 'display' for free.
For a long time Apple pushed the Mini and Mac Pro out of the way to herd more folks into buying 27" panels from them. The Mni was gimped and the entry price of the Mac Pro pushed into the $3,000 up range. That left the $1,700 - $2,700 range free range for the iMac to dominate as about the only option. Need a decent dGPU and have less than $3,000 ... well you have to buy the iMac.
By the time the iMac Pro came around the Mac Pro was also kneecapped on performance as they left the specs at 2013 (or earlier ) for the CPU. Again if needed something in the 4-5K range that had a modern CPU in it .... users were herded into the choice which had side effect of keeping the 5K panel volume sales higher.
When the MP 2019 (better GPU options) and iMac 2020 (faster CPU options for single and modest threaded workloads) came out the iMac Pro 2017 largely disappear without much complaining.
If the large screen iMac leaves the $1,700-2,700 the number folks who will want it will be less. It is about as much of of price point issue ( getting some 'bargain' for the screen) as it is 'all-in-one' feature priority. You don't have to even get to $4K before a large fraction of this crowd is going groan that there isn't a 'replacement'.
[ similar to the Mac Pro going up 100% in entry level price. The folks that wanted a #2,500-3,500 system didn't see that as a replacement either. ] Apple has lots of customers who are stuck in some pretty rigid pricing expecations.
That isn't very surprising since Apple mostly has large stuck to the same prices for most systems over the years. (in US dollar terms and periodic adjustments for inflation. ) The MP was a case where the just dropped a market subsegment on purpose. ( Apple is only really doing that at the outer edges of the zone. )
This kind of ultra-prosumer machine would have a limited market. Folks needing the screen, performance, and specs enough to justify a $14k+ machine aren't going to consider an iMac.
The buik of iMac Pro sales were not in anything close to that zone. Even $7K is a bit of a stretch.
IMO if Apple re-released a 27" with M4 internals and available memory/storage that we had before, they could get a lot of folks hanging onto their 27" Intels to upgrade. Esp. if base pricing is comparable to what the Intels were.
There was absolutely no equivalent to the Mini Pro during the vast bulk of the Intel 27" 5K era. There 27" iMac faced very , very minimal fratricidal Mac competition. There was no "replacement" Mac Studio Max class to compete with at all ( headless iMac with same CPU/GPU combo).
The estimates of the number the hard core "all-in-one only" hold outs is likely high. A fair number of folks were herded into the iMacs when it wasn't their preferred choice in the first place. The hard core modular memory folks probably don't see much of a difference between M1,2, 3, or 4. Hard core native Bootcamp to Windows folks ... nope.
A plain M4 is going to leave some folks behind also.
M4 Pro ( or higher) means the floor of Apple priced memory goes up. Cranking up the Apple memory and hitting the old iMac pricing isn't likely going to happen.
And frankly once the volume unit sales of the old 5K goes significantly down the bill-of-material costs for even those 'old tech' panels isn't going to be lower either. (the Studio Display isn't sagging in costs. ) . Once the screen isn't included 'free' you are going to loose some of those Intel hold outs. There is lots of folks there latched onto the 'sunk costs' of their current screen and/or the notion of getting a bargain for a new one. No bargian/free screen they aren't coming. What they really want are subsidized screens. That is basically over.
