You are right, not every appl eproduct is defective, maybe even only a small margin. BUT I am willing to bet that there are many many more PC forums out there than there are mac forums.
You see PCs do this nifty thing called overclocking, with overclocking at hand (and now being simplified by actual manufacs.) the overpricing of apple computers is at an alltime high.
Think about it, you have a core due and so do I. BUT I can slap that core due right into a desktop board put top end watercooling on it overclock it far beyond what your core duo could ever handle and probably still be at a price point lower than the stock apple.
This will be true for woodrest and conroe (MacPro presumably) as well.